Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 453, page 449: Destroying the Japanese Poison Gas Bomb Operation, Nighttime Cluster Air Raid

Tokyo, Japan, Naval Affairs Department, Exercise Section.

Yoshida has been transferred from the military equipment section to the exercise section.

Compared to the various logistical tasks of the Armaments Section, the Exercises Section is mainly responsible for organizing and planning various naval exercises, formulating exercise plans, and coordinating participating troops and equipment.

Yoshida, as a newly recruited staff member, was involved in the specific organization and implementation of the exercise, such as site arrangement and material allocation.

This position is coveted by young officers, as it allows them to directly interact with the military, build connections, and is the easiest way to leave the military affairs department and become a fleet commander.

Yoshida was able to enter this place not because of his 'rich family background' or noble status, but because of the factional label he carried.

His trump card was that he stood by a naval admiral through thick and thin and even saved the life of a former prime minister.

But Yoshida knew in his heart that everything he had gained was the result of someone's meticulous planning.

During the nights they disappeared in Shanghai, their family's monthly income of tens of thousands of US dollars became leverage against them. To maintain this lifestyle, they had no choice but to keep going.

Therefore, after countless sleepless nights, he gave up his last struggle, began to adapt to these things, and occasionally passed on the intelligence he had obtained.

The intelligence he sent out five days ago was something he overheard from a senior army officer when he was invited to a pub by several high-ranking officers of the fleet during a fleet exercise in Tokyo Bay.

Five days have passed, why is there still no response from China?
Yoshida was somewhat puzzled; this kind of information should, in theory, have been taken seriously.

The fact that the intelligence was not taken seriously made him feel frustrated and that his value had been diminished.

Time quickly came to the end of the workday. After the section chief left, he picked up his briefcase and left the Navy Ministry office building. As usual, he ate dinner at a restaurant next door and then packed a plate of eel to take home.

Back home, he took off his shoes, locked the door, and sat quietly in the living room, eating unagi-yaki (grilled eel).

When the appointed time arrived, he opened the cabinet and took out the telegraph machine from the hidden slot underneath.

Pick up the headphones, put them on, and wait for instructions.

I thought there would be no feedback as usual, but I was surprised to hear a static sound.

He quickly perked up, recorded the telegram, and then translated it.

[We need more detailed information regarding the poison gas bombs. It's urgent.]

Looking at the brief telegram, Yoshida felt a surge of excitement; he finally had something to do.

The next day, Yoshida applied to his section chief for a review of the exercise in Tokyo Bay. After receiving approval, he went directly to the naval base.

After a busy day, Yoshida took the initiative to invite the senior officers of the fleet to go to an izakaya for some relaxation.

They also invited those two army officers from last time, citing their amusing behavior, to come over as well.

Several officers were having a good time drinking at the izakaya (Japanese pub), and gradually lost their senses, ending up mingling with the bar girls.

Yoshida took the opportunity to chat with the senior army officer who had revealed the information that day.

The drunken officer, in a daze, told his colleagues what he knew, without ever considering that this would lead to a leak. In the past, everyone had been able to talk about anything in the izakaya.

Having obtained the information he wanted, Yoshida returned to Tokyo the next day and sent it out that night.

Yangon.

Fang Wen was prepared to wait for intelligence reports continuously, knowing the difficulty of the intelligence gathering process.

Unexpectedly, the message arrived on the third night after he sent the coded telegram.

After translating the coded telegram, the joy on Fang Wen's face gradually turned somber.

[It is reported that on August 6, Prince Kan'in Kotohito, Chief of the Army General Staff, issued an order to the Central China Expeditionary Army authorizing the use of chemical weapons in the campaign.]

The 2nd and 11th Armies were issued 30 rounds of chemical attack grenades and canisters, which will be used in the offensive against Wuhan.

The telegram also included details about the four types of poison gas shells to be distributed.

Red bombs: These contain sneezing agents, including biphenyl arsenic cyanide and biphenyl arsenic chloride. When these poison gas bombs explode, they release irritating gases that cause persistent sneezing and coughing, severe irritation to the eyes and respiratory tract, resulting in symptoms such as tearing and difficulty breathing, ultimately rendering the user unable to fight, and in severe cases, death.

Tea bombs: These contain highly toxic hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide is an extremely toxic gas that, when inhaled, rapidly inhibits the respiratory function of human cells, preventing them from taking in oxygen. This causes symptoms such as difficulty breathing, convulsions, and coma within a short period, and death can occur quickly without prompt medical attention.

Green bullets: These are filled with tear gas, typically phenylchloroethyl ketone (PKE). Their effect is to irritate the eyes, causing excessive tearing, eye stinging, and difficulty opening the eyes. They also irritate the respiratory tract, causing coughing and chest tightness. Primarily used to disrupt the enemy's vision and movement, temporarily incapacitating them.

Yellow bombs: These are injected with blistering agents, such as mustard gas or Lewisite. These types of poison gas bombs are extremely dangerous. Contact with the skin can cause redness, swelling, blistering, and ulceration; contact with the eyes can cause conjunctivitis and blindness; inhalation can damage the respiratory tract and lungs, causing difficulty breathing, lung infections, and in severe cases, death. Even with treatment, victims often suffer permanent disabilities.

After reading the telegram, Fang Wen felt depressed and stood up.

On the North China battlefield, the Japanese used green bombs, which are the least damaging type of poison gas.

However, the other three types of poison gas that will appear in the Battle of Wuhan, especially the tea-colored and yellow-colored ones, are extremely dangerous.

As early as 1925, the international community jointly signed the "Protocol on the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Toxic or Other Gases and Bacteriological Weapons in War," which restricted the use of poison gas bombs and bacteriological weapons. This is commonly referred to as the "Geneva Protocol."

This protocol was developed after World War I in view of the enormous catastrophe that chemical warfare had brought to mankind.

Unfortunately, the Japanese completely ignored this protocol and decided to use it during the war.

The Chief of the Army General Staff, Prince Kan'in Kotohito, who issued the order, was the Emperor's great-uncle, and the supporters behind his order were self-evident.

How can we stop these poison gas bombs from being used in war?

Fang Wen's thoughts were racing.

This kind of information cannot be revealed casually.

Given the current chaotic state of the Kuomintang, the intelligence would likely reach the Japanese army shortly after it was sent there.

If the Japanese become wary because of this, it will be difficult to find and destroy those poison gas bombs.

Since they didn't trust the Kuomintang, they had no choice but to tell the Communist Party.

The Communist Party's intelligence network behind enemy lines might be able to track down these poison gas bombs.

Immediately, Fang Wen sat down again and sent a telegram to his contact, Bai Yunfei.

Unexpectedly, the person was not there, and the telegram needed to be forwarded by someone else.

The Jin-Cha-Ji base area, Wutai Mountain region.

Bai Yunfei is inspecting a large tobacco field.

Although it was a little later than the normal summer planting of tobacco, the planting of tobacco was still completed in time thanks to the concerted efforts of the entire population in the base area.

With a growing period of 3 months and a harvest in October, this short-cycle cash crop is a major source of income for 10 million people in 70 counties of the Jin-Cha-Ji base area!
As a result, Bai Yunfei, who knew nothing about tobacco cultivation, has now learned various techniques and experiences in tobacco cultivation and spends his days traveling to different counties to understand the tobacco growth situation.

Squatting by the field, Bai Yunfei frowned as he looked at the blackness at the roots of the tobacco plants.

"There is black shank disease, this land can't be cultivated anymore, it's all burned."

Upon hearing what he said, the county's agricultural official became anxious, "How can we burn them all? Can't we just pull out the diseased ones?"

“No, black shank is caused by a fungus in the soil that is harmful to tobacco. If we don’t burn it all, it will spread to other fields, and the losses will be even greater,” Bai Yunfei replied. Upon hearing this, the agricultural officer immediately organized people to prepare for burning the fields.

Bai Yunfei also stepped in to help.

Just then, his assistant came running up the ridge of the field, waving telegram paper in his hand.

"Manager, there's a telegram for you from the county; I brought it with me." His title of manager refers to the newly established joint venture tobacco company.

Bai Yunfei took the telegram, looked at the coded message, and quickly took his leave to return to his residence.

He took out the codebook, translated its contents, and his expression changed drastically.

Such a large number of poison gas bombs, once transported to the battlefield, would certainly cause huge casualties and might even change the course of the battle.

We must report this to the military headquarters immediately.

He immediately went to the county's telegraph office to report to the Eighth Route Army headquarters.

The situation was very serious, so they moved to Yan'an.

Ultimately, the higher-ups decided that the whereabouts of this batch of poison gas bombs must be found.

Fang Wen sent a telegram to Bai Yunfei and received a reply in just half a day.

The telegram said to do everything possible to find the whereabouts of the poison gas bombs, but he wasn't sure if he could find them.

After all, the intelligence was obtained quite late, and it was unknown whether the batch of poison gas bombs was en route.

This is a problem that even superpowers can't solve.

However, the underground party members in various places behind enemy lines were able to do things that Fang Wen could not.

As radio waves traveled through the air, underground Communist Party members behind enemy lines began to take action in various locations.

Their investigations primarily focused on suspicious convoys, trains, and cargo ships.

After all, transporting such a large number of poison gas bombs would require extreme care, unlike transporting other military supplies.

This approach was very correct, and feedback came quickly.

A Japanese cargo ship arrived in Dalian in early July.

Port workers were prohibited from participating in the loading and unloading of this shipment.

Workers secretly saw a large number of Japanese soldiers wearing protective suits and gas masks unloading supplies from the ship.

Following this line of investigation, a new situation emerged.

These supplies were loaded onto trains in Northeast China that same day and transported by rail to the interior of China.

In order to find the transportation route of this batch of suspected poison gas bombs, underground party members in various places actively mobilized railway workers, and railway guerrillas also searched for it.

Through their tireless efforts, they tracked down the train after it entered the country.

The train transported the poison gas bombs to Tianjin via the South Manchurian Railway, then changed locomotives and transported them south via the Tianjin-Pukou Railway.

They were very careful when they set off, especially choosing a time after the railway guerrillas had attacked the railway, so that they could immediately organize the repair of the railway and then quickly depart.

The train then stopped in Jinan and remained stationary.

The train stopped in Jinan because the Jinan section of the railway needed to be cleared of silt due to the breach of the Yellow River upstream, and the train could not pass through temporarily.

Two days later, Fang Wen received good news.

When he saw from the telegram that the train had stopped in Texas, he couldn't help but laugh heartily.

God help me too.

He took out a map and new intelligence from the Shanghai intelligence station regarding the war zone.

According to intelligence, the Japanese 2nd Army is currently assembling in the Hefei area, preparing to advance towards Wuhan along the Dabie Mountains.

The Japanese 11th Army landed on the Yangtze River aboard naval vessels and fought against Chinese troops in Jiangxi Province.

Fang Wen outlined the train transport route and the two Japanese troops on the map, thus understanding how the poison gas bombs would be transported to the front-line war zone.

Clearly, they planned to use the railway, with the nearest unloading point being Bengbu Station, where some of the supplies could be transported to the Japanese Second Army in Hefei.

Fang Wen suspected that the remaining Japanese 11th Army would be transported by water, from the Yangtze River, to Jiangxi.

After making this judgment, Fang Wen immediately began reconnaissance and bombing preparations.

He first notified Pan Jiafeng in Fuping to take five gunboats from the Second Aviation Battalion, fully loaded with ammunition, to Xiangxi Airport.

He then piloted the Taishan bomber from the hangar at Yangon Airport from Yangon to Xiangxi Airport.

After the two sides met at Xiangxi Airport, Fang Wen explained the situation to the soldiers of the Second Aviation Battalion.

"Our target in this operation is a train loaded with a large number of poison gas bombs, which are about to be transported to the front line. We cannot allow these poison gas bombs to harm our people. We must destroy them completely before they are unloaded."

Upon hearing about poison gas, Pan Jiafeng immediately became furious and said, "These Japanese devils have no sense of righteousness or shame. They dare to openly use a vicious weapon that is universally recognized as unusable on the battlefield. It's only because we are too weak that we have no voice in the international arena and no one will stand up for us."

Fang Wen nodded: "To forge iron, one must be strong oneself. The weak will be bullied, and complaining is useless. Now, let me explain the action plan. I will conduct nighttime reconnaissance tonight to determine the train's whereabouts. At the same time, the underground party members along the railway line will cooperate and promptly report the train's location to us. Therefore, after I depart, due to changes in the situation, I may not be able to return. Instead, I will require you to depart directly to cooperate with me in nighttime operations. Because it is a nighttime aerial swarm operation, it will be very difficult, so you must be mentally prepared."

This is a new challenge; if it were just Fang Wen, he would have no problem at all.

However, the addition of five gunships and aircraft to support the operation multiplies the difficulty.

But this also ensures that the entire train is completely destroyed, leaving no trace of harm.

Pan Jiafeng looked grave and under immense pressure.

He asked, "Master, how do we conduct nighttime group operations?"

Fang Wen patted his apprentice on the shoulder: "Haven't you been conducting nighttime air transport all along? Maintaining distance and spatial positioning is key, and overall consistency is crucial. Do you think it's difficult to meet this standard?"

Hearing his master say that, Pan Jiafeng visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

He was nervous because he was unfamiliar with the new nighttime cluster tactics and worried that his men would suffer losses as a result.

However, if nothing changes, it can be accomplished simply by using the same swarm flight method as the night transport fleet.

After all, the subsequent nighttime group transport flights were all carried out by Pan Jiafeng and the pilots of the Second Aviation Battalion, and everyone had long since developed a tacit understanding on this matter.

He exclaimed in surprise, "Master, you had planned this all along! Night transport was a training exercise for us!"

"I'm not Zhuge Liang. Alright, you guys go and get ready, I'm leaving too."

Fang Wen smiled and stood up, leading Gong Xiuneng and several engineers who had participated in the bombing of Taierzhuang toward the Taishan bomber.

(End of this chapter)