Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 327: Counter-espionage, cleverness backfires

What Kenji Doihara was waiting for was the intelligence from the Henan East Corps Headquarters. With this intelligence, he made a decision with full confidence. When he finished the message he sent to Colonel Itanishi, Colonel Sano was stunned at first, and then accepted it calmly.

Since the division commander has made the decision, he, as the chief of staff, should not say anything more. He just needs to carry out the order. This is the professional quality that a qualified chief of staff should possess.

"Sano-kun, there's no one else here, so feel free to speak up. I don't want my chief of staff to just be a yes-man."

Kenji Doihara was in a good mood and felt like showing off. Colonel Sano quickly responded by saying:
“Your Excellency, the risk of continuing to attack Lanfeng City at this time is too great.

If the attack fails, losing soldiers and generals is secondary. If we miss the opportunity to break out, the consequences will be disastrous. Please think twice."

Kenji Doihara didn't say much, but handed the telegram he had just translated to Colonel Sano. It was obvious that he still trusted his chief of staff.

Colonel Sano took the information carefully with both hands and read it through carefully. All doubts in his mind disappeared immediately. As for the authenticity of the information, he had no doubt at all. There was no false information coming out of Kenji Doihara's hand. It was a golden signboard!

"Mr. Sano, Lanfeng City is the key to breaking the deadlock. Xue Boling naturally understands this, so he sent China's most capable guerrilla column to guard Lanfeng.

The idea is nothing more than to attack from the center, cooperate inside and outside, and annihilate our troops in the Lanfeng area.

I have to say that Xue Boling is quite capable and not a fool.

He was an expert at fighting, but he still didn’t understand politics and was just a relatively pure soldier;

Xue Boling was different. In the eyes of the first batch of students, he was an outsider and a big boss of the Guangdong faction. They might not dare to disobey orders face to face, but once attacked by the imperial army, some of them would dare to disobey in secret and it was not impossible for them to escape.

So even though there are hundreds of thousands of Central Army troops outside, I can break through at any time if I want to. No army can stop the full force of the Utsunomiya Division."

Colonel Sano thought about it carefully and realized that it was true. As long as the heavy artillery brigade's hundreds of heavy artillery fired at them, the Chinese people who were blocking the way would run faster than rabbits.

After figuring this out, he felt more confident and couldn't help but flatter him:
"Your Excellency the Division Commander is indeed an expert on China. Not only does he know everything about the Chinese army, he also knows their hearts. In addition, he has already mastered the deployment of the East Henan Corps. Victory will definitely belong to the Imperial Army!"

As the saying goes, flattery never wears out. Kenji Doihara was in a good mood to begin with, and after being flattered, he became even more talkative and continued to show off:
"Mr. Sano, the biggest variable now is Yue Qianli's guerrilla column. If we don't eliminate them in advance, when my troops break out, the guerrilla column will suddenly attack from behind, which will be very troublesome.
No matter how powerful Princess Iron Fan was, she couldn't do anything about the Monkey King who had crawled into her belly.

Considering that they had 2 men and strong fighting capacity, I had planned to break out to the northeast in advance. There, the 16th Division would provide support, so it would not be difficult to break out, but I would lose the artillery of the heavy artillery brigade and would have to leave a part to block the guerrilla column.
This retreat plan is a very bad idea. Not only will we suffer heavy losses, but we will also gain nothing. Our Utsunomiya Division will definitely become a laughing stock.

All the guerrilla columns on the periphery retreated back to Lanfeng City. At first I was a little worried that they would be difficult to fight after huddling together.
Now, from the important intelligence we have, we can see that the guerrilla column has a problem with supply. They consumed too much ammunition in the peripheral battles, and Xue Boling only gave them 10 rounds of ammunition, which is no different from sending away beggars. "

Sano smiled and said:

"Your Excellency the division commander used a very clever way to get rid of the beggars. Each person has less than ten bullets. Anyone would be angry, not to mention the famous Yue Qianli. If I remember correctly, he was also a student of Huangpu.

Without enough bullets, Yue Qianli can only defend Lanfeng City with his life. If he is forced into a corner, it is possible that he will give up Lanfeng City. "

Seeing that Colonel Sano was gradually catching up with his thoughts, Kenji Doihara nodded with satisfaction and said:
"Yoshi, Sano-kun, your thinking has improved a lot now. You finally know how to analyze the problems of the Chinese National Army from a political perspective. This is very rare. You have a bright future. I am very optimistic about you."

Kenji Doihara, an old and experienced man, made Sano so excited with just a few casual words. It was just a few worthless nonsense with so many people on the stage.

Kenji Doihara gained thousands of loyal fans both at home and in the military because of his outrageous behavior on September 18th, and Colonel Sano was no exception.

If this happened in the future, it would definitely be possible to sell goods through live streaming, and it would be inevitable that Colonel Sano would win ten or eight carnivals.

Colonel Sano said in a trembling voice:

"Your Excellency, the division commander, is too kind. I will have to learn from you in the future. However, Lanfeng City has 2 elite guerrillas in the city. Even with the 15th Regiment, isn't the force still a little weak?"

Kenji Doihara said confidently:
"That's enough. Lanfeng City is a small city. There are more than 2 guerrillas crammed into the city. How many will be left after a heavy artillery bombardment?
Modern warfare is fought with firepower, not numbers, and human wave tactics have long been outdated;
If Yue Qianli can hold out for half a day under the powerful air-to-ground firepower of the Imperial Army, I will consider him the winner! "

Colonel Sano agreed with this point. Since the division commander had confidence, he naturally had confidence as well.

He immediately bowed deeply to Kenji Doihara, then walked away with his command sword slung over his shoulder.

After completing the troop adjustment, the old Japanese continued to sit on the Diaoyutai and ravage their right hand with their left hand.

Two hours later, a dense group of small black dots flew over from the northeast, and a shrill air defense whistle sounded in Lanfeng City;

Teams of soldiers hid in the air-raid shelters in an orderly manner. These air-raid shelters were dug out overtime during the peripheral operations.

Although there was not enough time to dig a large number of city tunnels, it was still possible to dig out enough anti-artillery holes to hide them based on the terrain;

It may not be able to block direct hits from heavy artillery/aerial bombs, but it can block all shrapnel for the soldiers. The greatest damage from artillery shells still comes from shrapnel.

The Japanese aircraft group arrived over the city and began to drop bombs, and soon Lanfeng City was engulfed in flames;
In order to enhance the bombing effect, the Japanese chose to lower the flight altitude, which gave the anti-aircraft artillery company an opportunity.

Although there were only a dozen anti-aircraft guns left, they still risked their lives to make their voices heard at the enemy's fleet. With just one encounter, they shot down three bombers, and another one was injured, which frightened the enemy instantly.

They didn't expect that there were a large number of anti-aircraft artillery units in a small city like Lanfeng, and they suffered a not-so-small loss.

The Japanese planes quickly pulled up to avoid the anti-aircraft guns, but they still couldn't escape the fate of being blown up. From time to time, some planes were hit and fell with thick smoke. At the same time, the Japanese aircraft group also began to fight back. They pounced on the anti-aircraft guns like a group of vicious wolves, risking their lives to drop a string of bombs and blow up the anti-aircraft guns one by one;

The two sides were like swordsmen dueling in the air. While stabbing the other with the most powerful sword, their own chests would also be pierced. Neither side was afraid.

When the last anti-aircraft gun was blown up, the Japanese regiment commander couldn't help but cheer. This victory was too hard to come by.
He thought it would be an easy bombing trip, but ended up losing nearly half of his planes. This was something he could not accept.

He wanted to vent all his anger on this city, but unfortunately the bombs he carried had been used up, and the other Japanese soldiers were not much better off. In the end, he could only vent his anger with aircraft machine guns, but it didn't work very well.

The people in the city had long since fled to the countryside because of the war, leaving only a small number of elderly people. They were not afraid of death, as death was a relief for them.

The soldiers of the guerrilla column were hiding in simple anti-artillery caves, and the bullets did little harm to them.

The defenders destroyed more than a dozen anti-aircraft guns, shot down or damaged 13 planes, and used up all their bombs, greatly reducing the sacrifice of the main force in the city.

However, the anti-aircraft artillery company was destroyed and more than 70 officers and soldiers were killed or wounded.

Since Lanfeng City had an established anti-aircraft artillery unit, the Japanese flying wing became frightened and stopped bombing. Their response was that the ground forces had to deal with their own affairs and that the noble air warriors should not be used as cannon fodder.

Kenji Doihara could only swallow his anger. Anyway, they were equipped with a heavy artillery regiment and could still blow up the city of Lanfeng. It was better to rely on oneself than on others.

The heavy artillery regiment's covering bombardment was indeed terrifying. It took only one hour for Lanfeng City to be reduced to ruins and devastation. Thousands of houses were bombed into rubble, and hundreds of soldiers and civilians were engulfed by artillery fire. The whole city was like hell...

The devil who destroyed the city was gloating over himself and boasting:

"Morita-kun, the Empire's heavy artillery is the power from hell, capable of destroying everything!
Without the help of the air warriors, the heavy artillery regiment can also raze Lanfeng City to the ground. I can't imagine how many people in the guerrilla column can survive under such fierce artillery fire."

Colonel Morita Norimasa, the commander of the 15th Infantry Regiment, agreed with Itanishi Ichiyoshi's words. He was also an admirer of artillery. When he talked about the power of heavy artillery, he took over the conversation with great interest and said:
"Yoshi, modern warfare is fought with steel. Last year, China's steel production was only 4 tons, while the Empire's production was 580 million tons. They can't even reach a fraction of the Empire's production. What can they use to fight the Imperial Army?"

"Morita-kun, I didn't expect you to pay attention to this. The gap between the two sides is not just in steel, but in all aspects.

This is a war between an agricultural country and an industrial power. The overall national strength determines the victory or defeat of the war. The existence of a particularly capable unit will not change the outcome. The German-equipped division is destined to become history. "

Colonel Morita smiled contemptuously and said:

"Isn't it true that Banxi-kun is talking about Yue Qianli's guerrilla column?

It is rumored that this unit was born out of the 88th Regiment of the 527th Division and is now directly under the Chinese Military Commission. This unit is good at defense. The th, rd, and th Divisions of the Empire have all suffered losses under its command.

Now you are challenging the prestige of our 14th Division. You really deserve your reputation!"

Itanishi Ichiyoshi blushed for a rare moment, and then said in annoyance:
“I admit that this guerrilla column is indeed difficult to fight, but they should not have chosen to fight a positional battle with the imperial army in Lanfeng City;
Lanfeng City is a small city with no depth at all, and it does not have the conditions for urban street fighting. Under the coverage of the Empire's powerful heavy artillery, the entire city will be razed to the ground, and those who can survive are lucky.

Mr. Morita, I envy you! Now is the time when the guerrilla column is at its weakest. As long as you annihilate them, you will become famous and will definitely be personally received by His Majesty. "

Colonel Itanishi said with envy that Colonel Morita also thought he was lucky. Although Colonel Itanishi had deceived him a little, he was right about one thing: the defenders had suffered heavy losses under the ravages of heavy artillery, and this was the best opportunity for them to defeat the guerrilla column and become famous.

"Ibanshi-kun, the battles have to be fought one by one. Let us witness the historic moment when the warriors wipe out the guerrilla column!"

With the artillery preparation over, Colonel Morita's mind was no longer on bickering with Colonel Itanishi;

The soldiers of the Morita Regiment have launched a charge towards Lanfeng City. Three battalions are divided into left, center and right attack groups and rush towards Lanfeng City shrouded in smoke.

They were so dense that they looked like a swarm of locusts, which made Colonel Morita's blood boil. He wished he could join the battle himself.

Although Colonel Itanishi felt a little jealous, he couldn't wait to pick up the telescope and watch the 15th Regiment enter the city. After all, he was the designated leader of the two regiments, and he also played a role in the victory.

Lanfeng City, whistles sounded one after another, and in the smoke, teams of soldiers rushed out from the ruins, then seized the advantageous terrain, ready to fight to the death with the Japanese invaders who entered the city;

Aerial bombing and artillery strikes buried thousands of soldiers forever in the rubble, but those who were lucky enough to survive were not intimidated by the brutality of the Japanese.

They shook off the loose dust on their bodies, pushed away the rubble piled at the entrance of the cave, and after greedily breathing in the fresh air, they swiftly crawled out of the cave, ready to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese invaders who had entered the city.

They did not intend to keep the Japanese out of the city, but confidently let them in, and then fought street battles with them like they did in Nanjing and Bengbu.

Every pile of rubble and every broken wall here will become a cemetery for the Japanese. Once you come here, don't think about leaving easily.

At first the Japs were a little reserved, after all, the guerrilla column was so famous, they were well-known for defending the city, which was nothing new in the Japs’ army;

They thought there would be a life-and-death fight before entering the city, but they ended up entering the city easily, as if they were taking a picnic in Utsunomiya.

But before the Japanese could hold their ground for long, chaotic gunfire rang out in the city and the Lanfeng street fighting began as expected.

(End of this chapter)