One man's resistance against Japan, I mobilized a million people to aid Shanghai.

Jinshanwei, the temporary headquarters of the Japanese 10th Army.

Originally, Heisuke Yanagawa was still at headquarters, waiting for news of the Fourth Fleet's triumphant return.

But what he didn't expect was the devastating news that the Fourth Fleet had been almost completely annihilated at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and that its commander, Admiral Kiyoshi Hasegawa, had died.

Yanagawa Heisuke stood frozen in front of the battle map, as if he had been doused with ice water, and did not move for a long time.

Inside the command center, the atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating. Everyone understood what the complete annihilation of the Fourth Fleet meant.

"Baka...yarou!!!"

for a long time!

A roar, suppressed to the extreme, finally erupted from Yanagawa Heisuke's throat.

He crumpled the telegram in his hand into a ball and slammed it to the ground. Veins bulged on his forehead, and his face turned ashen with extreme anger.

"Hasegawa Kiyoshi, that idiot! He deserves to die!! Those Navy morons are utterly stupid!"

"Two fleets! Two entire fleets! Destroyed by a bunch of rabble from the Chinese army?!"

"This is the greatest disgrace in the history of the Empire's army!!"

Yanagawa Heisuke paced back and forth in the command post like a trapped beast, his voice hoarse and filled with a violent aura.

He couldn't understand it, much less accept it.

The army's glorious victory was within reach, but it was ruined by the navy's bunch of idiots.

"Commander, what should we do now?"

Chief of Staff Major General Tadashi asked cautiously, his face full of worry.

The destruction of the Fourth Fleet meant that they lost crucial naval fire support and supply line security, and their flanks were exposed to threat.

If the Nationalist army launches a counter-offensive, they will inevitably face a fierce battle.

Yanagawa Heisuke abruptly stopped, staring intently at the winding Yangtze River estuary on the map, his eyes flashing with a fierce light.

"What to do? Keep the attacking!"

"The Chinese won the naval battle by sheer luck, but so what? Our army isn't like those idiots in the navy!"

"Even if the Chinese had a fleet, they wouldn't have a decent port, let alone a good naval logistics system!"

"How much of their power can those captured warships actually achieve in their hands? They're nothing more than a few floating iron coffins!"

He walked to the map and pointed sharply at the vast area west of Shanghai:

"Their advantage lies at sea, so let's force them to fight on land! Deep inland, far from the coastline!"

"Let their fleet become a mere decoration! As long as our army's offensive is fierce enough to utterly crush the main force of the Chinese army, temporary gains or losses at sea will have no bearing on the overall situation!"

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his anger, and loudly ordered:

"Order all divisions to accelerate the offensive and make every effort to wipe out the elite Central Army forces of the National Revolutionary Army in Shanghai before the National Revolutionary Army can provide support."

Heisuke Yanagawa is ambitious.

But at that very moment, an accountability telegram from headquarters arrived first.

The telegram was extremely harsh, severely criticizing Yanagawa Heisuke's incompetence in command, which led to the annihilation of the Fourth Fleet.

Headquarters has begun to question his command abilities and has demanded that Yanagawa Heisuke conduct a thorough self-reflection.

Yanagawa Heisuke was both shocked and furious. He cursed the Navy idiots for blaming him for the defeat and immediately sent a telegram back.

On the one hand, they claimed that the navy was incompetent, causing the war to collapse, while on the other hand, they emphasized that the army was making good progress and demanded that the offensive be intensified.

The Chinese army is on the verge of collapse; with just a little more effort, a decisive victory is assured.

Finally, he even strongly demanded that the General Headquarters continue to send more army reinforcements to the Shanghai-Nanjing battlefield in order to completely crush the Chinese army's will to resist and resolve the war in East China in one fell swoop.

The telegram was eventually presented to the Japanese Army Minister Sugiyama Gen and Chief of the General Staff Prince Kan'in Kotohito, among other decision-makers.

They immediately convened a meeting to discuss the matter.

The atmosphere was heavy inside the headquarters meeting room.

"That Yanagawa guy... he's got quite the big mouth."

Sugiyama Gen's face was grim. "But continuing to send reinforcements will also carry risks."

Prince Kan'in said slowly:

"The navy's repeated defeats have dealt a heavy blow to the morale of our empire. If the army cannot achieve an overwhelming victory, the international outlook will be extremely unfavorable."

"Right now, there is only one gamble: the fate of the nation. We are betting that the Chinese army is exhausted and will be defeated in one battle."

Silence fell over the meeting room.

After a long while, Sugiyama Gen slowly stood up, a ruthless glint in his eyes, and said coldly:

"Then let's gamble."

"From the First Sino-Japanese War to the September 18 Incident, we have been gambling all along, and we have won every time we gambled."

"The mandate of heaven is with us, the empire's military fortunes will prosper, and Amaterasu will surely bless us!"

"Order! Immediately transfer the 16th, 114th, and 116th Divisions from the mainland, the Kwantung Army garrison, and the Korean Army to form the 11th Army. Ship them at top speed to reinforce the Shanghai-Nanjing battlefield."

"At the same time, I ordered Admiral Osami Nagano, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, to dispatch the main force of the First Fleet to the East China Sea immediately to find and annihilate the ragtag Chinese fleet that had managed to win by luck, to regain control of the sea, and to wash away the shame of the Imperial Navy."

The 16th and 114th Divisions are the main forces for defending the homeland. If they are transferred to China, the homeland will be left vulnerable.

However, the Japanese were confident that no one could bypass the navy and directly attack their homeland, so even if they transferred all their troops to China, they had no worries about their rear.

As for losing the bet? That's simply impossible.

The empire will only ever win; from the First Sino-Japanese War to the present, the empire has never lost.

......

The Yangtze River Estuary.

Zhu Yong stood on the deck, gazing at the boundless ocean to the east, his heart at peace.

Since his arrival in this world, he has been fighting every moment and rarely has time to rest.

He had learned from Zhu Wenzheng and Wang Lei that Chiang Kai-shek planned to launch a counterattack on Shanghai, which was a good thing for him.

Now that he has blocked the mouth of the Yangtze River, the Japanese ammunition is running out. When the shells are all used up, the gap between the National Revolutionary Army and the Japanese will be reduced to the minimum.

The Japanese economy cannot support them indefinitely waging war; as long as they hold on, there is hope.

Zhu Yong looked at his system panel and suddenly frowned.

[Ding, 3982 kills.]

Since becoming a naval officer, the kill rate has been getting slower and slower. At this rate, when will he be able to generate a million clones and sweep away the Japanese devils?

Could we find a place where the Japanese are densely packed, their fighting strength is weak, and we can slaughter them at will?

After much thought, Zhu Yong finally came up with an excellent location.

"Perhaps my vision is too narrow, and I've misused this system."

"The system rewarded me with a clone system, not for the Battle of Shanghai, but for..."

Zhu Yong immediately turned his gaze to the northeast, for that was the true place where he would attain enlightenment.