Chapter 89: There’s Another Unit
Xuzhou City on March 15, 1938, carried a hint of restlessness amid the piercing spring chill.
Xuzhou Peace Hotel, crystal chandeliers illuminated the banquet hall brightly.
A fundraising conference was being held here, with fundraisers shuttling through every corner of the banquet hall, while the participating gentry and dignitaries generously donated.
Fifth Theater Commander-in-Chief Li Zongren, accompanied by the theater chief of staff major general and a female interpreter, stepped into the hall in shiny military boots; the hem of his woolen military greatcoat swept across the threshold, stirring a gust of biting wind, and the furrowed brow between his eyes appeared even deeper under the magnesium flashlights.
Reporters pushed forward with their cameras, and in the bursting white light of the magnesium powder, Xu Zuyi instinctively raised his hand to shield his eyes.
A female reporter in a yin dan shi lin cloth cheongsam lost her hairpin in the crowd, revealing an unhealed abrasion behind her ear as her dark hair fell loose.
“Please be quiet, everyone!” Li Zongren’s Guangxi accent rang out exceptionally clearly in the hall.
At this moment, a honest smile appeared on his face as he said to the crowd in the hall: “Welcome everyone, please take your seats.”
Although he had said so, the enthusiastic crowd refused to sit and all gathered around him.
Seeing the crowd’s enthusiasm, Li Zongren smiled and walked over to shake hands with everyone.
“Hello, General Li!”
“Hello!”
“Thank you for supporting our War of Resistance Against Japan!”
When Li Zongren reached the middle, a blonde, blue-eyed foreign female reporter in her thirties spoke up and asked:
“General Li, since the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the phrase ‘Chinese troops shifting positions’ has become synonymous with defeat. Is General Li here in Xuzhou this time to also command your troops to shift positions?”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked toward Li Zongren.
Li Zongren was silent for a moment, then turned to the crowd and said: “I would like to ask friends in the press to note that during the Taiyuan Campaign, our army did shift positions, but the Eighteenth Army Group achieved a major victory at Pingxingguan.
During the Battle of Shanghai, our army also shifted positions, but the Japanese paid a heavy price in casualties for it.
This time, Zongren has been ordered to come to Xu to shatter the Japanese attempt to encircle Xuzhou from north and south.”
Li Zongren’s words rang out with conviction, carrying an unquestionable tone.
“Clap clap clap…”
The crowd all burst into applause.
But soon, an untimely voice rang out; a brown-haired foreign male reporter asked maliciously:
“But as far as I know, the Japanese side has claimed that if Japanese troops encounter resistance from Chinese forces along the Tianjin-Pukou Railway, they will turn Xuzhou into a second Nanjing. General Li… what is your view on this?”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone around showed angry expressions.
In this timeline, although Su Yaoyang’s appearance had caused heavy casualties to the Japanese in Nanjing, it also enraged them, and in the following days, the Japanese vented their fury on the military and civilians of Nanjing.
Nanjing still saw a horrific massacre, and when the news spread, the entire nation’s military and civilians were filled with extreme hatred.
This foreigner was stirring up old wounds, deliberately reopening the scars of all Chinese people.
Li Zongren snorted lightly, “In my view, today’s Xuzhou is absolutely not yesterday’s Nanjing.
Moreover, although the Japanese created a horrific massacre in Nanjing, they themselves didn’t fare much better; as far as I know, our army eliminated over ten thousand Japanese troops inside Nanjing city, and the Sixth Division had two infantry regiments completely annihilated. Why haven’t I heard the Japanese mention that?”
“Hahaha…” The crowd in the banquet hall burst into laughter.
At this time, three months had passed since the Nanjing Campaign, and the news of the heavy losses the Japanese suffered in Nanjing had spread nationwide; with Li Zongren saying this, all the reporters and gentry laughed heartily.
After the press conference ended, Li Zongren returned to the headquarters accompanied by Xu Zuyi and others.
The headquarters was filled with thick tobacco smoke, with a few wisps of blue smoke slowly rising from the ceramic ashtray on the desk.
Li Zongren had just taken off his military cap, with fine beads of sweat still on his forehead; the Biluochun tea in the cup steamed hot, but he had no time to take a sip.
The staff officer’s hurried footsteps approached from far to near and soon appeared before him, the telegram in his hand trembling slightly.
“Read it.”
Li Zongren’s knuckles knocked on the rosewood desktop, causing the tea stem in the cup to spin.
The staff officer swallowed and said: “Outer positions at Teng County completely lost, Japanese heavy artillery has blasted open the east city gate…”
Before the words finished, Xu Zuyi suddenly braced himself against the map table, shaking the sand table full of red and blue small flags with a rustle.
Xu Zuyi said somewhat anxiously to Li Zongren: “Commander, Zhizhong Wang Mingzhang won’t hold out much longer. The 122nd Division was originally a miscellaneous unit, with only about three thousand men in the whole division and not a single heavy weapon; if this continues, losing Teng County is only a matter of time.”
The dim yellow light in the operations room cast shadows on Xu Zuyi’s furrowed brow, his knuckles white from gripping the telegram.
Li Zongren lightly tapped his cigarette on the edge of the blue porcelain ashtray, the falling ash piling into a small mound.
His gaze swept over the crude wooden marker for the 122nd Division on the sand table—a few lonely matchsticks slanted into the mound representing Teng County, surrounded on three sides by tin tank models symbolizing Japanese forces.
The ticking of the copper clock suddenly became piercing, each tick like sawing through a taut rope.
After a long while, Li Zongren turned his head and asked Xu Zuyi: “What about the 20th Army Group? Where are they?”
Xu Zuyi shook his head bitterly, “Tang Enbo did not fully reinforce as ordered, only sending small detachments to probe; the main force of the 20th Army Group is still stalled south of Lincheng, now Zaozhuang Xuecheng District.
I urged him several times, but Tang Enbo always delayed with excuses like ‘need to assemble forces’ and ‘waiting for the right moment.'”
The electric fan in the operations command buzzed, yet it could not dispel the stifling heat in the room.
Li Zongren’s tightly clenched hands turned his knuckles white from the force, veins throbbing at his temples.
“Assemble forces?”
He suddenly slammed his fist on the low table, causing the teacup to clatter.
He strode to the military map, where the red circle around Teng County had been outlined repeatedly with pencil until frayed, like a festering wound.
The blue flag of the 20th Army Group still stood a hundred li away, its flagpole shadow slanting across Teng County like a knife held to the defenders’ throats.
“Send an urgent telegram to Tang Enbo… saying…”
The words came to an abrupt halt.
Li Zongren suddenly kicked over the nearby wastebasket, scraps of paper flying like snowflakes and slowly settling beside his riding boots.
“Forget it, forget it…”
He let out a long sigh; though he was the Fifth Theater Commander-in-Chief, Tang Enbo, as the Committee Chairman’s confidant, was not someone he could deal with.
After a long while, he asked: “Yanmou… which unit is currently closest to Teng County?”
Xu Zuyi slowly shook his head, “Within a hundred li radius, only Zhang Zizhong and Pang Bingxun’s forces in Linyi, but they are tightly entangled by the Fifth Division and cannot break free.”
At this point, he suddenly exclaimed: “Eh… wait… we still have one more unit.”
