Film and Television World Life Record

At four in the morning, Li Mu flew back to Nanyang. After working for three hours and expending so much energy, he quickly tidied up, felt sleepy, and went back to his room and fell asleep soon after.

That morning, he got up late. After washing up, he ate breakfast while asking someone to bring him today's newspaper.

Sure enough, these reporters were well-informed; news of the fire in Ju County that killed more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers had already spread throughout the country.

Countless people who saw this news were thrilled. It turned out the Japanese weren't so formidable after all; the war of resistance had a glimmer of hope, and the nation had a chance to thrive…

There are many theories about the cause of the fire.

Some say it was the result of a night raid by the frontline troops; others say it was the result of the bombing of Guofu; still others say that the Japanese devils angered the heavens and were punished by lightning.

As for Li Mu, no one would doubt him.

Such a significant victory could not have been achieved by one person alone. Even if bombing were to be carried out, to achieve the same effect, at least a hundred aircraft would need to fly over together and drop bombs.

How could this possibly have anything to do with Li Mu, who doesn't even have a flight squadron? Who is he? Just some nobody who's heard of a small, local power.

……

Having dealt with the Japanese in Ju County, Li Mu then focused his attention on the defense of Teng County.

After occupying the line of Yanzhou, Jining, and Zou County in early February, the 10th Division under Isogai Rensuke on the Jinpu front became extremely arrogant. Coupled with the smooth progress since the invasion, they believed that the Chinese army in front of them was no match for them and that capturing Xuzhou would be a piece of cake. So they advanced south along the Jinpu Railway.

On the 14th, a small notebook arrived near Teng County. Sun Zhen, commander-in-chief of the 22nd Army Group, urgently ordered the reserve force and Wang Mingzhang, commander of the 122nd Division, to lead their troops to defend Teng County to the death and wait for reinforcements from Tang Enbo's army.

Wang Mingzhang hastily took to the field, urgently deploying troops to defend Teng County. Soon, about 5000 infantry and cavalrymen from the small army approached the eastern suburbs of Teng County, first attacking the guard troops defending the eastern gate of Teng County.

Around 8:00 AM, the enemy concentrated artillery fire on the East Gate, the city center, and the West Gate railway station of Teng County. At the same time, dozens of aircraft, in coordination with the operation, flew over Teng County and bombed it relentlessly.

After the enemy bombing began, Wang Mingzhang knew that a major battle was imminent. He announced to all the officers and soldiers in the city: "I am determined to defend Tengcheng to the death. The city lives or dies."

He then ordered the north and south city gates to be blocked, while the east and west city gates were left open for traffic but were also prepared to be closed at any time. The division headquarters and its directly subordinate troops were also moved into the city from the west gate.

On the other side, the artillery bombardment continued for two hours from 8:00 AM until around 10:00 AM. After a brief silence of about 30 minutes, the artillery suddenly concentrated its fire and fiercely bombarded the salient of the southern half of the Dongguan stockade wall to cover the infantry's attack.

The defending soldiers were fearless and calmly fought back. However, the Japanese were too numerous and their firepower too fierce. In addition, there were planes coming to support them from the sky at any time. They held out until midnight before they were able to drive back the invading enemy.

However, the 122nd Division itself also suffered heavy casualties, with more than one-third of its personnel lost.

Under these circumstances, at 3 a.m. that day, Li Mu piloted his plane to the vicinity of Teng County.

Based on intelligence and observations through binoculars, the enemy's deployment outside the city was quickly ascertained. It must be said that the annihilation of the Itagaki Division had a significant impact; the Japanese became more focused on air defense and made numerous arrangements in this regard.

There were anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-tank mortars, not to mention anti-aircraft guns. Fortunately, it was nighttime, and the distance was too great to see clearly, minimizing the threat from the anti-aircraft guns.

In addition, learning from the experience of the Itagaki Division, the various units were stationed in a more dispersed manner, so simply bombing was not very effective.

However, this is in the wild, not in a town, so the gasoline can't be used anymore. Not only does this stuff consume too much fuel, but without a house to aid combustion, it's not very effective in the wild and can easily start wildfires.

Faced with this situation, Li Mu didn't have any good solutions, so he could only use bombs. Every one that was killed was one less to worry about, and every one that was killed would reduce the pressure on the defending troops.

The armored and artillery units were targeted first. A dozen or so 250-kilogram aerial bombs were dropped, and the artillery positions and armored units were immediately filled with cries of agony. More than ten cannons and more than twenty armored vehicles were directly destroyed.

Next, he selected relatively densely populated areas and dropped seventy or eighty 50-kilogram aerial bombs. Seeing the army below, stunned and in chaos, Li Mu then returned to base.

After he left, Wang Mingzhang took advantage of the chaos within the Little Notebooks and launched a counterattack, which was quite successful. However, the Little Notebooks were not to be underestimated and quickly regained control of the situation.

Once daylight arrives, the Japanese will have air superiority, and having suffered heavy bombing damage, they will be eager for revenge. The defending forces will face an even more brutal war.

……

On this day, the long-awaited reinforcements, Tang En's troops, finally arrived. As soon as the vanguard regiment got off the train, Sun Zhen ordered them to go and reinforce Teng County, citing the urgent situation there.

Unfortunately, the regiment was attacked by a part of the Japanese army besieging Tengxian at Nansha River and was forced to retreat. The other units were only on guard at Nansha River. After the army headquarters arrived, they learned that Tengxian was under siege by a strong enemy force. Under the pretext of mobile warfare, they led the troops to maneuver to the area east of Fengshan in northeastern Tengxian.

Tang En is conserving his strength, waiting for the right opportunity before making a move, but the 122nd Division can't wait that long!

On the 17th, despite being badly damaged by Li Mu's bombing, the Japanese launched a large-scale offensive, and the 122nd Division suffered more than half its casualties.

At 3 a.m. the next day, Li Mu flew his plane back to the vicinity of Teng County and began bombing the Japanese positions, personnel, artillery, armored vehicles, etc.

The enemy's anti-aircraft guns began to unleash their power, causing Li Mu to have many concerns.

More than ten minutes later, leaving behind a scene of devastation and corpses strewn across the ground, they finally returned to base.

……

Since the invasion, the Isogai Division had encountered almost no particularly tenacious troops. Today, however, they met with a tough opponent in Tengxian, which was quite unexpected.

Not only did the aircraft bomb the troops for two consecutive days, causing heavy losses, but the defending troops of Tengxian also displayed extremely strong fighting spirit, still having the strength to resist even under such a large-scale attack.

The Japanese soldiers were seeing that time was of the essence, and the longer they delayed, the more troops the Fifth War Zone would send in. So they dared not delay any longer.

They requested dozens of aircraft, along with dozens of armored vehicles and a large number of artillery pieces, to launch a fierce attack on Teng County. Instantly, the entire county was engulfed in smoke, houses collapsed, and it became a sea of ​​fire.

Soon, a portion of the enemy forces, under the cover of aircraft and armored vehicles, broke through the east gate, and countless Japanese soldiers poured in through the breach, making the battle even more intense.

Seeing the critical situation, Wang Mingzhang personally led the team, risking the lives of countless brothers, and barely managed to drive the enemy out of the city, leaving them with even fewer soldiers available.

Seeing that the city could not be defended, Wang Mingzhang hurriedly telegraphed Sun Zhen: "The enemy is bombarding our city and the east city wall with artillery fire. Several sections near the east gate have been destroyed. Enemy soldiers have climbed the city. After our counterattack, we killed many enemy soldiers and repelled them. If there is no news from our friendly forces by nightfall, the isolated city will be in danger."

Unfortunately, the nearby Tang En tribe, seeing the power of the small notebook, had no intention of helping at all.

At 2 PM, the Japanese launched a renewed attack, bringing in heavy artillery to bombard the south city wall, while over 20 enemy aircraft bombed the south gate. Simultaneously, enemy infantry, under the cover of tanks, attacked the south city. The defending troops fought bravely, suffering heavy casualties, but still could not stop the Japanese from capturing the south city wall.

At this moment, the Japanese army concentrated its forces to launch a fierce attack on Dongguan from the east. Enemy infantry broke into Dongguan under the cover of tanks. Seeing that the city had been breached on four sides and there was no hope of reinforcements, Wang Mingzhang sent his last telegram: "I am determined to fight to the death to repay the country."

At 5 p.m., the western city wall fell, and the small notebooks concentrated their firepower on the central intersection of the city.

Besides ordering all troops within the city to engage in street fighting and hold the western gate until reinforcements arrive, Wang Mingzhang personally led his guard company to the northwest city wall to direct the battle and attempt to capture the western gate tower. However, the enemy's firepower was too intense, and the entire company suffered heavy casualties.

At this point, Wang Mingzhang decided to move to Xiguan Railway Station to continue commanding the defending troops in their fight against the enemy. When they reached the vicinity of the Electric Light Company, the enemy troops on the west gate tower, positioned at a high vantage point, unleashed a burst of machine gun fire. Wang Mingzhang and his more than twenty subordinates and followers mostly sacrificed their lives for their country.

Wang Mingzhang was shot multiple times, with bullets piercing his chest. Blood gushed out, and he died.

Next, facing the advance of the Japanese invaders, the defending troops in the city held on to the death. The remaining troops held out in the city until noon the next day, until all the defenders were heroically sacrificed and Tengxian fell.

Chapter 432 Going South

When news came that Tengxian had fallen and the entire 122nd Division, from its commander down, had been wiped out, Li Mu sighed, realizing he had not been able to prevent it.

Thinking about it, the outcome was probably already predetermined. Despite Li Mu's help in bombing two waves against the elite division of more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers, the Japanese did not suffer as much damage as expected.

From the newspaper, Li Mu saw another piece of news, which was also the only way out for the 122nd Division at that time. At that time, Tang En's 81st Army was only 15 kilometers away from Tengxian County at Guanqiao, but it remained inactive, neither attacking from the flank nor relieving the siege. It just silently watched and waited for Wang Mingzhang's 122nd Division to be completely annihilated.

From the time the 81st Army arrived in Zuojin on the night of March 16th until the fall of Tengxian, a full several dozen hours passed. Tang En's troops stood by and watched without taking any action, allowing the 10th Division to annihilate the 122nd Division and occupy Tengxian.

Such "friendly forces" not only chilled the hearts of the miscellaneous troops in the Fifth War Zone, but also chilled the hearts of the various Sichuan troops.

Newspaper reports on the matter further fueled public outrage, pointing the finger at Tang En's 81st Army and putting immense pressure on the government.

However, a major event occurred on the front lines, and the public's attention was quickly diverted.

This was still done by Li Mu, and while he gained some insight, it didn't change the outcome, leaving him quite unhappy.

When you're angry, you naturally need to find someone to vent your anger on.

He set his sights on the small notebook stationed in Teng County.

According to intelligence gathered by the Military Intelligence Bureau and various sources in the north, there are currently about three to five thousand Japanese soldiers from the 10th Division stationed in Teng County.

Since that's the case, Li Mu wouldn't mind using the fire attack tactic again, making these little notebooks go down with the 122nd Division!

At four o'clock the next morning, Li Mu set off from Nanyang.

Around 5 p.m., we arrived over Teng County. It was still dark. I took out my binoculars and circled Teng County twice to get a general idea of ​​the county's layout.

The next moment, a hand reached out of the cabin. Instantly, a huge oil drum appeared out of thin air more than seven meters away, plummeting straight down.

With a loud explosion, gasoline turned into flames that splashed over a radius of hundreds of meters, and countless Japanese soldiers ran out of the house, howling in terror.

Then, the second oil drum fell, and the violent explosion spread over a radius of hundreds of meters, creating another sea of ​​fire.

Next, Li Mu flew his plane around the county town, and oil drums fell and turned into seas of fire.

One by one, the Japanese soldiers screamed as they rushed out of the houses, trying to escape the sea of ​​fire that engulfed the entire city.

In less than two minutes, more than 50 tons of gasoline were dumped.

Many Japanese soldiers rushed towards the city gates, trying to escape. Li Mu then threw two unbombed oil drums at each city gate, and all four gates were engulfed in flames.

However, the county town was quite large, and despite the fact that many gasoline barrels had been thrown, many places remained unaffected, and many Japanese soldiers fled there to hide.

He had anticipated this situation; after all, a county town was so large that even burning it would take a considerable amount of time. The scene of the oil drums exploding in the air and raining fire gave him inspiration.

In the past two days, he specially made a batch of time-delay explosives to replace aerial bombs and installed them in the grooves of oil drums.

Now, many places in Tengxian County are already ablaze, and the air temperature is high enough; it's time to give them a boost.

With a thought, the fuse of an explosive charge in the space was pulled. The next moment, the oil drum and the explosive charge appeared more than seven meters away and fell straight down.

A dozen seconds later, when the explosive charge was still several hundred meters above the ground, it suddenly exploded, shattering the oil drum along with it. The gasoline turned into raindrops and even sparks, falling down towards the burning county town below.

This process continued more than ten times, with more than ten tons of gasoline being poured down. The houses throughout the county were completely set ablaze, and the raging fire quickly engulfed everything, including several thousand Japanese soldiers.

Having achieved his objective, and with five or six minutes to spare, Li Mu quickly departed before enemy planes could arrive and encircle him.

……

However, when this news reached the ears of the commander of the Fifth War Zone, his expression was somewhat amused and exasperated. He was pleased to have eliminated so many Japanese soldiers, but also lamented that his plan to lure the enemy deep into his territory was likely to fail.

In fact, they had already planned the decisive battleground with the Japanese: Taierzhuang.

With Tengxian holding the line for some time, preparations were complete on the other side, and the Northwest Army, known for its excellent defense, was responsible for the defense.

The original plan was to lure the enemy deep into our territory, trap them there, wait for them to tire themselves out, deplete their firepower and morale, then cut off their supplies and attack their flanks.