Chapter 322: It’s Really Tough
Boom!”
Su Yaoyang’s mind seemed to be struck by a bolt of thunder, and his whole body stiffened in place. He looked down at Song Mei’s lower abdomen, then up at her shy yet happy pretty face, his mouth opened, but he couldn’t utter a single word.
“Really……really?” His voice had changed pitch.
Song Mei nodded vigorously, her eyes also becoming a bit moist.
The next second, Su Yaoyang, this usually decisive and unflappable militia general commander even when Mount Tai collapsed before him, suddenly burst into a thunderous cheer like a three-year-old child!
“Oh oh oh……I’m going to be a dad! I, Su Yaoyang, have an heir!”
He abruptly scooped Song Mei up by the waist and excitedly spun several circles in place, completely ignoring Song Mei’s startled cry of “Hey, slow down!”
Su Yaoyang’s face grinned like a blooming chrysanthemum, with tears of joy even forming at the corners of his eyes.
He set Song Mei down, then picked up little Lu nearby in one swoop, making the little girl shriek nonstop.
This dancing and completely undignified spectacle made Song Mei and little Lu chuckle helplessly, though their eyes were filled with sweetness and happiness.
That night, Su Yaoyang barely slept a wink.
He lay carefully beside Song Mei, his hand always resting on her lower abdomen, as if he could feel the presence of that little life.
Ever since crossing to this war-torn era, he had built an army, won wars, and gained power and status, but deep in his heart, there was always a lingering sense of detachment, like a spectator who had intruded into history.
Until this moment, when he felt that the continuation of his bloodline was about to be born in this world, he finally truly felt for the first time that he was no longer just a passerby.
This place was also his home.
The next day, the news that Commander Su was going to be a father spread throughout the entire Wutaishan County base like it had grown wings.
Officers like Li Gaoyuan and Cheng Rufeng came directly with congratulatory gifts.
The entire base was filled with a festive atmosphere, and for several days straight, the smile on Su Yaoyang’s face never faded; he was beaming at everyone,
The festive and harmonious atmosphere at the Wutaishan County base lasted nearly a week.
Every day, Su Yaoyang either accompanied Song Mei or handled some routine affairs, enjoying this rare peace and happiness.
However, the shadow of war never dissipates because of personal happiness.
More than ten days later, while Su Yaoyang was still immersed in the joy of becoming a father for the first time, an urgent intelligence report came like a bucket of cold water poured over his head.
In the militia general headquarters, Su Yaoyang sat behind his desk, his face grave as he looked at the telegram in his hand.
The telegram was personally delivered by Pi Ruoyu, from a latent agent in the Taiyuan direction; the content was very brief, but packed with information.
At least three divisions of the Japanese North China Army were rapidly assembling toward Taiyuan along the three main railway lines of Pinghan, Zhengtai, and Tongpu, and their vanguard units had already engaged in fierce firefights with the Jin-Sui Army on the outskirts of Taiyuan.
“The Japanese really can’t let go of Taiyuan after all.”
Su Yaoyang tossed the thin telegram paper onto the desk, leaned back heavily into the chair back, and let out a long sigh.
What was coming had finally arrived.
He closed his eyes, his mind racing.
The scale and speed of this Japanese counterattack exceeded his expectations. That old fox Yan Xishan was probably anxious like an ant on a hot pot by now.
After pondering for a long time, he finally opened his eyes again, calmness restored in them.
“In that case……” He mused for a moment, then said to Pi Ruoyu, who had been standing solemnly by the side, “Tell Doolittle right away to strengthen the Taiyuan direction……uh……”
Halfway through his words, he suddenly stopped. He then abruptly remembered that the guy had already flown to Hong Kong on a transport plane two days ago, transferring from there back to America.
Now, the entire air wing was completely under Chinese control.
The Lightning Air Wing’s wing commander was taken over by the former deputy wing commander Ye Qiyuan, while the bomber wing commander was taken over by Feng Mingqian.
“Sigh……”
Su Yaoyang irritably pinched the bridge of his nose; habits were truly terrifying. He reorganized his words.
“Alright, call Cheng Rufeng right away.”
He corrected himself, “Have him deploy all our reconnaissance planes, centered on Taiyuan, to conduct 24-hour uninterrupted armed reconnaissance in the east, north, and south directions.
We must closely monitor every move of the Japanese, especially their artillery positions and logistics supply lines; we can’t let the little devils pull off another silent sneak attack like last time.”
“Yes! I’ll call Wing Commander Cheng right away.” Pi Ruoyu responded crisply.
“Also……”
Su Yaoyang seemed about to say something more, but the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back, finally just waving his hand, “If……never mind, it’s nothing; go handle it first.”
He had originally wanted to say, if Yan Xishan’s request for aid call came, stall him for a day first. But on second thought, there was no need to spell it out; Pi Ruoyu naturally knew how to handle the propriety.
“Yes.” Pi Ruoyu asked no more, saluted, and turned to stride out.
Once the office door closed, leaving Su Yaoyang alone in the room, he wearily raised his hand and helplessly patted his forehead.
He had originally thought that capturing Taiyuan would at least buy one or two months of peace, allowing him to properly accompany his wife and enjoy some family warmth.
He hadn’t expected this happy time to be so short; the Japanese were stirring up trouble so soon.
Inside Taiyuan city, Provincial Government Building.
In Yan Xishan’s spacious office, the atmosphere was oppressively heavy, as if water could drip from it. This “King of Shanxi,” who had just recaptured his lost territory and hadn’t had time to rejoice for a few days, was now deep in distress and anxiety.
The Japanese offensive had come so suddenly and fiercely, completely disrupting all his deployments.
Originally, according to his and his staff’s estimates, after the disastrous defeat at Taiyuan, the Japanese were badly hurt, their lines stretched thin with strained logistics; reorganizing a large-scale offensive on Taiyuan would take at least three to four months of preparation.
These precious months would be enough for him to reorganize troops, reinforce city defenses, and even get another batch of aid from the central government.
But he never imagined reality would slap him hard in the face. Less than half a month after he took over Taiyuan, the Japanese went berserk, scraping together the 3rd, 4th, and 27th elite divisions from across North China—fully three divisions totaling seventy to eighty thousand troops—pressing down like a dark cloud.
On paper, after nearly three years of recuperation, his Jin-Sui Army had indeed recovered a lot of strength.
Under his command were ten infantry divisions and one cavalry army, totaling a claimed 120,000-strong force, seemingly superior in numbers.
But he knew his own family’s affairs best. Yan Xishan knew better than anyone what quality those 120,000 men really were.
Severely understrength, inadequately trained, with a motley assortment of weapons and equipment that couldn’t even share ammunition universally.
Pitting his meager forces against the Japanese three A- and B-class divisions would yield only one result—egg meeting stone.
He slumped in the grandmaster chair, fingers unconsciously tapping the desk. The ashtray was already piled high with cigarette butts.
To hold Taiyuan, this political center he had operated for half his life, relying solely on himself was absolutely impossible.
Without the Eighth Route Army harassing and pinning down the enemy from behind, and without the Shanxi Militia’s freakishly powerful troops holding the front, Taiyuan’s fall was just a matter of time.
At the thought of the Shanxi Militia, at the thought of that excessively young yet cunning-as-an-old-fox Su Yaoyang, Yan Xishan felt a sharp pain in his chest. He clearly remembered, just days ago at the negotiation table, Su Yaoyang’s merchant-like face of “clear prices, no deception to young or old.”
Inviting gods is easy, sending them away is hard; to get them to help this time, it looked like he would have to bleed profusely.
Those two million silver dollars were probably just an appetizer.
After weighing the pros and cons for a long time, the desire to survive finally overpowered the pain of cutting flesh. He slammed the desk, steeling his resolve.
He pressed the electric bell on the desk, and soon a secretary in a Zhongshan suit pushed the door in, bowing respectfully.
Yan Xishan gritted out a few words through his teeth, instructing the secretary: “Immediately, in my name, send telegrams to the Eighth Route Army and Su Yaoyang of the Shanxi Militia.
Say……say that the Japanese horde is pressing at the border, Taiyuan is in peril, and Xishan earnestly begs the two to make time to come to Taiyuan to discuss joint defense plans!”
At this point, he emphasized his tone, almost grinding his teeth as he added: “Remember, the wording and attitude must be sincere! Extremely sincere!”
“Yes! Sir!”
The secretary’s heart jolted; he had never seen Commander Yan issue orders in such a nearly humble tone, so he didn’t dare delay and quickly withdrew after acknowledging.
In the office, Yan Xishan was alone again. He wearily closed his eyes, as if already seeing the snow-white silver dollars in his provincial government vault sprouting wings and flying toward Wutaishan County.
Deep in the Taihang Mountains, inside a simple cave dwelling, the Eighth Route Army headquarters was set up here.
A dim yellow horse lantern hung on the wall, its light barely illuminating the huge operations map on the wall, densely marked with red and blue pencils.
The air was filled with a faint smell of animal dung.
The chief paced irritably back and forth in front of the map, hands behind his back, brows furrowed deeply into a “river” character. He clutched several telegrams in his hand, the thin papers nearly wrung out with water.
Finally, he stopped, turned to the deputy chief of staff sitting at the desk carefully studying documents under the light, his voice laced with irrepressible anger.
“Shanxi’s liberation is certainly a great event worth celebrating for all Chinese people, but it has also pushed our Eighth Route Army to the forefront, making us the target of all arrows!”
He slammed the telegrams in his hand onto the desk with a muffled “thud.”
“Look at this! These past few days, Japanese forces across Shanxi have gone mad, mobilizing heavy troops for round after round of frenzied sweeps on our base areas, leaving us overwhelmed.
Now, the Japanese have even pulled three divisions’ heavy troops from North China, intent on retaking Taiyuan.
That old Yan Xi has sent me three telegrams in one day, every word dripping blood, every sentence earnest, inviting me to Taiyuan to discuss military affairs.
Not content with that, he specially invited notables from all walks of society and reporters from across the country; what is he thinking? He’s trying to roast us over the fire!”
Facing the chief’s anger, the mild-mannered deputy chief of staff merely looked up, even a faint smile tugging at his lips.
“Heh, chief, don’t be angry first.” His voice was exceptionally steady: “In my view, if he didn’t do this, he wouldn’t be Yan Xishan.”
At this, he stood up, walked to the map, his expression turning serious.
“Actually……I can understand Yan Xishan’s actions. He finally recaptured his lifelong nest, hasn’t even warmed his seat, and now the Japanese are coming aggressively to take it back—who wouldn’t be unwilling?”
He pointed lightly at Taiyuan’s position on the map.
“But the problem is, with just his 120,000 undertrained, poorly equipped Jin-Sui Army, he simply can’t hold Taiyuan.
So what to do? Seek outside aid.”
His finger drew two circles on the map: one enclosing the Eighth Route Army base in the Taihang Mountains, the other enclosing Wutaishan County to the north.
“Looking across all of Shanxi, the only ones who can help him hold off three Japanese divisions are us and that powerful Shanxi Militia.
This move of his—inviting reporters and notables—is an open stratagem. It slaps the big hat of ‘resisting Japan and saving the nation’ on us and Su Yaoyang.
Go, and we’re fighting for him Yan Xishan; don’t go, and we’re abandoning him to die, sabotaging the Anti-Japanese National United Front. Then, newspapers nationwide will point at our backs and curse. He’s calculated this very shrewdly.”
The chief walked to the desk, plopped down on a small stool, gulped from a cooled rough porcelain tea bowl, and continued.
“To be honest, I really don’t want to wade into this muddy water.”
He snorted lightly, “Dealing with someone like old Yan Xi is more mentally exhausting than bayonet-charging a Japanese division.
Just now, a telegram came from Central, clearly stating the strategic importance of rushing to Taiyuan’s aid.
The telegram said that Taiyuan’s liberation was hard-won; losing it again would deal an incalculable heavy blow to the nation’s anti-Japanese resolve. So, this favor we have to help.”
“Everything is from the overall anti-Japanese perspective; Central’s telegram is not wrong.” The deputy chief of staff nodded in agreement. He walked back to the desk, picked up the telegram from Yan Xishan, read it again, his expression growing graver.
“The current issue is what our wealthy Militia Commander Su is thinking. Yan Xishan’s open stratagem works on us, but maybe not on Su Yaoyang.”
He paused, looked at the chief, and stated the core issue.
“After the last Taiyuan assault, Old Chen Chen Brigade Commander came back and specifically reported to us.
Su Yaoyang clearly stated at parting that he would at most deploy his air wing for paid assistance and absolutely would not send a single ground soldier to Taiyuan again.
That’s the real headache. Without his elite troops that can face Japanese divisions head-on, just relying on us and the Jin-Sui Army to hold Taiyuan is really tough!”
