Chapter 303: Awe
In the office of Yoshio Shinozuka in Taiyuan
The stifling atmosphere made them exceptionally restless. Shinozuka Yoshio sat behind his desk, his brow furrowed, holding a fountain pen, its tip stiffly halted over a document.
At this moment, his mood was extremely agitated. The offensive from the Shanxi militia and the Eighth Route Army was becoming increasingly fierce, yet the reinforcement troops were long overdue. For the past two days, a strong sense of unease had enveloped him.
“Bang!”
The office door was suddenly and forcefully pushed open from the outside, emitting a harsh crashing sound.
Chief of Staff Ryukichi Tanaka barged in, almost with an attitude that could be described as rude, even intrusive, stumbling as he entered.
Usually meticulous, he now appeared disheveled, his military cap askew, his face deathly pale, and his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.
Shinozuka Yoshio’s frown deepened, and he was about to lash out.
However, before he could start scolding, Ryukichi Tanaka beat him to it, speaking in a trembling voice laced with tears, incoherently:
“Commander, sir, bad news!”
He ran, gasping for breath. After a few breaths, he continued, “The 27th Division… the 27th Division just sent a telegram… the Shanxi militia’s air force… they just bombed the 27th Division.
The 27th Division suffered heavy losses! Now… now they are unable to advance and reinforce Taiyuan…”
“Clink…”
The fountain pen in Shinozuka Yoshio’s hand, amidst Ryukichi Tanaka’s report, weakly slipped from his fingers, falling onto the hard desk with a crisp, faint sound.
He froze completely. Although his heart had been tormented by an ominous premonition for a long time, when this terrible news truly arrived, he still felt a wave of dizziness.
“And… and what about the Independent Mixed Seventh Brigade?” Shinozuka Yoshio’s voice was hoarse. He forced himself to maintain the last shred of hope and asked tremblingly.
Ryukichi Tanaka’s body trembled slightly. His eyes were dull and lifeless, and he shook his head in despair, “The situation for the Independent Mixed Seventh Brigade is much the same…”
He swallowed, his voice even lower, filled with deep weariness, “The Independent Mixed Seventh Brigade was also bombed by Chinese aircraft. Almost all vehicles were destroyed, and thirty percent of the mules and horses were lost! Their mobility has been greatly reduced, and I’m afraid… I’m afraid they won’t be able to reach Taiyuan on time.”
Shinozuka Yoshio leaned back abruptly, sinking heavily into his chair, his gaze blankly fixed on the ceiling.
Taiyuan… Taiyuan… He seemed to already hear the sound of the city walls crumbling, and see the Imperial Army being torn apart on that land.
As an experienced general, he knew very well what those numbers reported by Ryukichi Tanaka meant.
Almost all vehicles destroyed meant the complete severance of nearly half the supply chain; and the loss of thirty percent of mules and horses meant the complete loss of another ten to twenty percent of transportation capacity.
When calculated this way, more than half of the supplies and transportation power had been completely destroyed, and even the remaining supplies could not be effectively transported due to lack of capacity.
A unit that has lost its supply cannot function on the battlefield.
The 27th Division and the Independent Mixed Seventh Brigade had now become two toothless tigers, completely incapable of reaching Taiyuan on time, let alone engaging in combat.
The thought sent a chill from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, his heart pounding like a drum.
“We can’t wait any longer…”
Shinozuka Yoshio suddenly stood up from his chair, slamming his fist onto the desk with a dull “bang.” A glint of determination and madness flashed in his eyes.
“Immediately order the Thirty-Seventh Division and the Forty-First Division to each dispatch two infantry regiments, along with all artillery units, to immediately reinforce the direction of Taiyuan.
Reinforce Taiyuan at the fastest possible speed, at all costs.
The speed must be fast! Otherwise… otherwise, it will truly be too late!” His voice was deep and hoarse, each word squeezed out as if through clenched teeth.
“Commander, sir!”
Hearing this, Ryukichi Tanaka suddenly looked up and cried out.
He involuntarily took half a step back, his lips trembling, wanting to say something but not knowing where to begin.
As of this year, the First Army had a total strength of only about fifty to sixty thousand men, including field divisions, independent mixed brigades, and various auxiliary units.
Earlier, to secure Taiyuan, Shinozuka Yoshio had already transferred the entire Thirty-Sixth Division, which had made the First Army’s troop deployment in other parts of Shanxi stretched thin, like a taut bowstring.
Now, the commander was going to forcibly extract four infantry regiments and all artillery from the remaining forces? This was practically stripping all the troops from other parts of Shanxi bare!
If at this time, those covetous Jin Sui Army, Eighth Route Army, and even Central Army and other Chinese forces took advantage and surged in from all directions like venomous snakes, wouldn’t the entire Shanxi front immediately fall into chaos and completely collapse?
Ryukichi Tanaka felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart; he seemed to have already foreseen such a tragic scene.
“Tanaka, you must think I’m crazy, right?” Shinozuka Yoshio gave a bitter smile. “You must understand, there are priorities. Taiyuan is the center of all of Shanxi. As long as Taiyuan is in our hands, we still hold the initiative in Shanxi. Once Taiyuan falls, we will be passive. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir!”
Ryukichi Tanaka bowed deeply. “Understood. I will go and issue the orders immediately!”
With that, he quickly left the office.
“Rustle…”
A flash of lightning split the sky, and soon, a drizzle began to fall. Shinozuka Yoshio looked out the window with some concern. It was already August, why was there still so much rain? Was this the special climate of the hilly terrain?
The sudden autumn rain made the weather in Shanxi even colder and gloomier. Dark clouds covered the sky, and large raindrops splattered noisily onto the muddy fields, creating splashes of water.
In such damp and cold weather, more than a dozen large tanks, like steel behemoths, rampaged through the fields, crushing the weeds. Their heavy tracks churned up mud and grass mixed with rainwater, leaving behind dark trails, and large amounts of yellow silt were flung in all directions.
Each tank was mounted with several fully armed infantrymen, their figures appearing particularly grim in the rain.
On one of the tanks, the hatch of the commander’s cupola was half-open, revealing the partially visible, stout body of Zhuang Xiaoman. He let the cold rain continuously drench his face and body, with no intention of closing the hatch.
Rainwater flowed down his helmet and camouflage uniform, gathering into streams, sliding across his chin.
This tank gunner, who had followed Su Yaoyang since breaking out of Nanjing, had now grown into an excellent Captain company commander.
Since the fierce battle that morning, the armored regiment’s first battalion, second company, led by him, had barely stopped advancing. Although the continuous combat and maneuvering made them feel quite exhausted, there was also an indescribable sense of excitement and accomplishment.
“Brothers, patrol this area one more time, and then we can go back for dinner!” A rough and energetic voice came from the commander of tank number 278 through the steel helmet’s earphones.
Zhuang Xiaoman’s lips curved into an almost imperceptible smile. He knew very well that since the founding of the Shanxi militia, the armored forces had always been Su Yaoyang’s sharpest striking power, and this had never changed.
Precisely because of this, in this campaign to encircle and annihilate the Japanese reinforcement troops, they had undertaken the most crucial strike mission.
In the afternoon, the attack mission on the main front had been handed over to the Eighth Route Army’s ground forces. Only then did the armored units have time to dispatch troops to patrol the surrounding areas, clearing out the remnants of the Japanese army that had scattered and fled under the air and ground strikes.
“Officer, this is Sparrow! Spotted a cavalry unit at three o’clock on the right flank, it should be… it should be some devils’ cavalry!” A hurried voice reported from the reconnaissance platoon through the earphones, with a hint of excitement.
Zhuang Xiaoman quickly picked up the binoculars hanging around his neck and aimed them in the direction reported by the earphones. Through the curtain of rain, he indeed saw a troop of cavalry moving slowly along a muddy country road.
And these cavalrymen seemed not to have noticed them, still proceeding at a leisurely pace, their horses splashing mud and water. One could even clearly see the rising sun flag fluttering in the wind on their flagpole.
A bloodthirsty and mocking smile involuntarily appeared on Zhuang Xiaoman’s lips. These unlucky fellows had delivered themselves to his doorstep.
“All units, attention! There is a unit of over a hundred devil cavalry! All units, form up in combat formation and encircle them.
Hit them hard! Don’t let a single one escape!”
Zhuang Xiaoman’s voice, transmitted through the radio, reached the earphones of every tank crew member, carrying an unquestionable command and a hint of icy killing intent.
“Understood!” The voices of the tank commanders immediately responded in unison through the radio, filled with the eagerness for battle.
At the same time, the Japanese cavalry unit ordered to scout on the right flank was also struggling to advance in the mud. Captain Hendao, the commander of this cavalry unit, was riding a gray warhorse and impatiently waving his riding whip. Suddenly, his peripheral vision seemed to catch something, and he froze abruptly, his eyes widening.
“Retreat! Retreat quickly! It’s Chinese tanks! Tanks!” Captain Hendao’s face instantly turned ashen. He let out a scream of terror, almost instinctively jerking his horse’s head around, and at the same time, shouted at the top of his lungs for the cavalry unit to retreat.
However, it was too late.
“Brothers, aim carefully! Hit them hard! Don’t let a single one escape!” As soon as Zhuang Xiaoman’s words fell, the guns and cannons on each tank roared in unison, like awakened beasts.
The coaxial machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns on the tank turrets spat tongues of fire, “da da da,” and a dense hail of bullets poured down like a storm, sweeping towards the panicked Japanese cavalry unit.
Captain Hendao whipped his horse desperately, trying to make it run faster. However, before he could even fully turn around, he felt a sharp jolt in his head, and an intense pain instantly spread throughout his body.
A 7.62mm bullet precisely struck his head. The bullet tumbled and ruptured at high speed inside his skull, instantly blowing off more than half of his head. Red and white matter, mixed with rainwater, sprayed out, foul-smelling and viscous.
Captain Hendao, having lost more than half of his head, slumped onto his warhorse with a thud. He couldn’t even utter a complete scream before being mercilessly trampled by the heavy iron hooves of the pursuing warhorse, his body instantly crushed into a bloody pulp, leaving only a dark bloodstain on the ground.
“No match for us!”
Zhuang Xiaoman, with half his body exposed, looked at the completely routed Japanese cavalry before him, a sneer of contempt appearing on his face.
As the Shanxi militia’s strength grew day by day, both soldiers and officers no longer held the awe they once had for these once arrogant Japanese soldiers. Instead, they were replaced by a sense of absolute contempt and disdain.
