Chapter 111: Bite Off More Than One Can Chew
“Sir… Five minutes ago, the Japanese army dispatched ten aircraft to bomb Taierzhuang, but after one round of bombing, these planes suddenly turned around and flew to the south bank of the transport river, launching a surprise attack on the security regiment’s artillery positions. Now both sides are locked in a fierce battle.”
A staff officer ran breathlessly into the command post and shouted loudly to Li Zongren and Sun Lianzhong.
“What?”
Li Zongren stood up, exchanged a glance with Sun Lianzhong, and both said in unison: “There are spies!”
After the earlier shelling, the artillery battalion had moved positions at the first moment, but unexpectedly, the Japanese planes still found them immediately. Besides spies, they couldn’t think of any other reason.
Sun Lianzhong slammed the table and angrily said: “That damn spy, if I find out who provided the intelligence, I’ll dig out his heart to see if it’s black or red!”
“And what the hell are those people from the Military Statistics Bureau and the Central Statistics Bureau doing? They can’t even catch a few spies. I’d be better off raising a dog than them!”
“Alright, what’s the use of talking about this now?” Li Zongren said with a grim face: “The most important thing now is to figure out a way to get the artillery battalion to withdraw quickly and save as many as possible.”
“Can they still withdraw now?” Sun Lianzhong said irritably, “Now we can only leave it to fate and see how many cannons are left after the bombing.”
Li Zongren remained silent with a grim face. Sun Lianzhong’s words were harsh, but they were lessons paid for with the blood of countless soldiers.
Due to China’s extremely weak industrial foundation, there were simply no conditions to produce fighter planes, so they could only rely entirely on imports.
Before the July 7 Incident, China had about three hundred warplanes, but due to shortages of parts, insufficient training, and outdated models, only about two hundred were actually combat-ready.
Therefore, although the Chinese Air Force performed well in the early air battles of the War of Resistance, their numerical disadvantage was obvious.
From the July 7 Incident to before the Battle of Xuzhou, the Chinese Air Force went through battles such as the Battle of Shanghai（August-November 1937） and the Defense of Nanjing（December 1937）, suffering heavy losses of warplanes.
By early 1938, only 30-50 of the original warplanes were usable, which led to China completely losing air superiority to the Japanese.
Once ground troops were targeted by Japanese aircraft, it was basically impossible to escape. This was why Sun Lianzhong spoke such discouraging words.
After a long silence, Li Zongren sighed lightly: “Originally, I estimated that Su Yaoyang could at least hold Taierzhuang for ten days. It seems I was too optimistic and underestimated the threat of Japanese aircraft.”
“Imitate Lu… You immediately notify Chi Fengcheng. Change the original rest period from ten days to three days. Once the Nanjing security regiment can’t hold, they must go up immediately.”
“Alright!” Sun Lianzhong nodded with a dark face, “I’ll call Zhen’e（Chi Fengcheng） later and tell him to be ready to go up at any time.”
After saying that, he muttered curses under his breath, “Damn it… What the hell is this? We finally withdrew, haven’t even caught our breath, and now we have to prepare to fill the gap again.”
While Li and Sun were worrying about the artillery battalion, Su Yaoyang in the Guandi Temple was also cursing.
He could naturally think of what Li Zongren and Sun Lianzhong could think of, but he wasn’t cursing the spy who sold the artillery battalion’s position to the Japanese.
For him, coming from later generations, spies and traitors like second devils during the War of Resistance were simply too numerous, even to the point of numbness. So he was cursing himself for not paying enough attention to building anti-aircraft forces. If he had formed two more anti-aircraft battalions, they wouldn’t have to fear Japanese planes.
At the same time, he sighed inwardly that his own forces were still too weak. If he had an air force under his command, even just one flight squadron, today’s battle situation would be completely different.
But regretting now was useless; he could only passively wait for the results here.
Waiting was the hardest. As time ticked by, his mood became increasingly anxious.
Finally… the phone rang. He grabbed it immediately: “This is Su Yaoyang. Speak.”
“Regiment commander… this is Wei Dayan!” Wei Dayan’s voice came from the receiver.
“Wei Dayan, how is the artillery battalion now? Are the losses heavy? Have the Japanese planes withdrawn?”
“The Japanese planes have already flown away.”
Wei Dayan’s voice carried uncontainable excitement.
“Regiment commander… Earlier, we were attacked by a formation consisting of six Type 97 heavy bombers and four Type 97 fighters.
After more than twenty minutes of intense combat, we shot down four enemy bombers and two fighters. The remaining planes all fled!”
Su Yaoyang was delighted and then asked: “What about our losses?”
“We lost a total of three 105mm cannons, one heavy mortar, and three anti-aircraft guns, with more than thirty personnel casualties.”
“Well done!”
Su Yaoyang’s heart, which had been suspended, finally settled. In fact, he had already prepared for the worst outcome. If the artillery battalion were wiped out, he would immediately have people rebuild one in Xuzhou, even if it meant deceiving or robbing, to gather enough gunners. After all, Xuzhou city had plenty of soldiers but nothing else.
Among tens of thousands of troops, there must be a few hundred who knew how to fire cannons, right?
However, the worst expected outcome didn’t happen. Instead, it brought him a moderate surprise: the anti-aircraft battalion had shot down six enemy planes, which was no small achievement.
But now wasn’t the time to celebrate. He quickly said: “Immediately clear the battlefield at the fastest speed and move positions to prevent a second Japanese air raid.”
“Understood!”
After instructing Wei Dayan a few more things, Su Yaoyang plopped down on a stool made of stacked ammunition crates, took a sip from his canteen, and only after his mood calmed did he pick up the phone again.
“Hello… Connect me to the theater command headquarters. Ask Commander Li to take the call…”
Things in the world are so wondrous; if someone is happy, someone else must be worried.
When Isogaya Kisaku received the news of the air force’s disastrous return, he first couldn’t believe it, then turned livid with rage.
He couldn’t figure it out no matter what: a formation of six heavy bombers and four fighters bombing an artillery position not only failed the mission but lost six planes to the enemy’s anti-aircraft fire. Was this a joke?
“What exactly caused us to lose so many planes?” Isogaya Kisaku berated angrily, “What the hell is Fujimoto Tora doing?”
This time, to capture Xuzhou, the Japanese side had invested heavily, deploying over 170 aircraft alone.
These planes seemed numerous, but spread across various battlefields, they were stretched thin.
Losing four heavy bombers and two fighters at once was enough to pain even resource-scarce Japan.
As the commander responsible for air support and bombing during the Battle of Xuzhou, Fujimoto Tora had committed such a major blunder. As commander of the 6th Flying Brigade, he would likely face severe consequences.
