Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

Luxi, west of Shenxian County, is the First Field Hospital.

This place was originally a large mansion owned by a wealthy man, but it has now been requisitioned.

The tranquility beneath those century-old locust trees in the courtyard is gone.
Several jeeps, kicking up clouds of yellow dust, screeched to a halt at the gate of the courtyard.

The car door opened, and Chu Yunfei jumped out.

He quickly returned the salute to the guards at the gate and strode into the courtyard.

His face was horribly gloomy.

Before even entering the ward, a slightly pungent odor wafted over.

"what"

"My eyes! My eyes!"

"It hurts to death!"

"Give me a shot! Platoon leader, give me a shot!"

A mournful wail could be faintly heard.

Chu Yunfei paused slightly, then stepped across the threshold with even greater determination.

The spacious main room was densely packed with wounded soldiers.

Some of them were covered in festering sores, horrific blisters left by mustard gas.

Some people cough violently because the suffocating toxic gas is corroding their lungs.

Many more people had their eyes wrapped in thick bandages, a horrific sight from the burns caused by the venomous gas.

"Commander Chu, what brings you here?"

The busy dean saw Chu Yunfei and rushed over, sweating profusely, wanting to report.

Chu Yunfei waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to be so polite: "How is the situation?"

“It’s a special situation.”

The dean's voice choked with emotion: "The Japanese used a very high concentration of poison gas this time, and it was a mixture of poison gas. Its killing efficiency far exceeds that of the mustard gas they used before. Many of our brothers are probably..."

Chu Yunfei's heart suddenly clenched.

He walked to a hospital bed where a young soldier lay, his eyes bandaged with blood, his hands flailing helplessly in the air, shouting incoherently, "Commander! Japanese devils! The Japanese devils are on the left! Fire!"

Chu Yunfei reached out and grasped his hand.

"Brother, don't be afraid, I'm here."

Feeling the warmth and strength of those large hands, the soldier was stunned for a moment, then trembled all over, and tentatively asked in a tearful voice, "Who are you, officer?"

"I am Chu Yunfei."

Chu Yunfei's voice was gentle, yet it carried a reassuring power.

"Sir! I'm so sorry!"

The soldier suddenly tried to sit up, but Chu Yunfei held him down. "The Japanese artillery is too powerful. When the poison gas came, the brothers were blinded and couldn't see anyone. But the position is still in our hands, please rest assured, sir!"

Chu Yunfei gently comforted them, "It's not your fault, you're all great."

"Which part are you from?"

"Reporting, sir, I am from the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, Vanguard Regiment of the 88th Group Army."

Vanguard Regiment?
Chu Yunfei's eyes narrowed slightly: "Your regimental commander is Li Baojia, right?"

"Yes! It's our regimental commander!" the soldier nodded excitedly. "His commander also inhaled the poison gas, but he's still stubbornly holding on at the front lines and refuses to come down."

Li Baojia.

This name was like a key, instantly unlocking the floodgates of Chu Yunfei's long-sealed memories.

It was the autumn and winter of 1937, shortly after the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan.

In the fierce Battle of Niangziguan and the subsequent pursuit, the 358th Regiment deployed its elite troops.

At that time.

There were two young men from Xing County, Shanxi Province, one named Li Baojia and the other named Wang Weiguo.

These two seemingly honest and simple young men from Shanxi possessed a ruthless and resourceful spirit on the battlefield.

During an extremely dangerous pursuit, it was these two men who captured Colonel Kimura Hisazo, the chief of staff of the Japanese 20th Division.

That was one of the highest-ranking Japanese officers captured alive by the National Revolutionary Army in the early stages of the War of Resistance against Japan!

For this, the Nationalist government issued a special commendation order, and the two were both awarded the "Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun," the highest honor for military personnel.

Unfortunately, God is jealous of talented people.

In the subsequent three phases of counter-offensive operations.

Wang Weiguo, who was already a battalion commander, was wounded and died in battle, sacrificing his life for his country.

Li Baojia, who survived, carried on his brother's legacy and worked his way up step by step until he became the commander of the elite vanguard regiment of the 88th Group Army.

He was a veteran who had crawled out of piles of corpses, and he was the most trusted of Chu Yunfei's most trusted subordinates.

But now, this unit, which carries glory and blood, has been ravaged by poison gas and turned into this state!
Chu Yunfei's eyes burned, and a surge of rage welled up in his chest.

He looked around at the young faces struggling in pain—his soldiers, his brothers, the backbone of this country!

"brothers!"

Chu Yunfei's voice rang out in the hall, drowning out all the wails and clearly penetrating everyone's ears: "I am Chu Yunfei!"

The previously noisy ward fell silent instantly, and all the injured who could still move tried to turn their heads toward the direction from which the sound came.

"I know you're in pain, you can't see it, and you feel aggrieved!"

"The Japanese devils have no martial ethics; they used such despicable means as poison gas to ambush us."

"But I, Chu Yunfei, will remember this debt!"

"The North China Joint Command has taken note! The 400 million Chinese compatriots have taken note!"

Chu Yunfei walked to the center of the hall, took off his military cap, and clenched it tightly in his hand: "I know you are all tough guys, so I won't say anything more."

"I promise you this!"

Chu Yunfei raised three fingers and vowed resolutely: "First, in this battle, I will annihilate the enemy in front of me, and use the head of that old devil Okamura Neiji to pay tribute to the fallen brothers and to avenge your eyes!"

"A blood debt must be repaid in blood!"

"Since they're using poison gas, I'll burn them to ashes with a sea of ​​fire!"

"Secondly, I will mobilize the entire North China region—no, I will do everything in my power to gather the best ophthalmologists in the world, use the best imported medicines, and spare no expense to treat you!"

"I want you to walk out of the hospital healthy and strong, return to your unit with your heads held high, and watch with your own eyes as we plant the flag of victory over Shanhaiguan!"

"it is good!!"

"Kill the Japanese devils! Avenge them!"

A series of hoarse yet impassioned roars erupted from the ward.

Even with his eyes covered by gauze and his body incomplete, his spirit and energy were never broken.

Seeing this, Chu Yunfei gave a firm, standard military salute.

He then turned and strode out of the hospital.

Outside, the sunlight was blinding.

"Jingzhong".

"Your Excellency!"

"Pass on my orders to bring in the best doctors to the front lines as much as possible, and prioritize the supply of medicines to the front lines."

Chu Yunfei put on his military cap: "Notify Liang Weiguo to send all the stockpiled special ammunition to the front line."

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

In the blink of an eye, another two days have passed.

Luxi.

Episode 88: Frontline Command Post.

Fang Ligong, his eyes bloodshot, paced anxiously in front of the map: "Where is Your Excellency?"

Liu Wang advised from the side, "We should be there soon, Chief, don't worry."

"You've asked me this seven or eight times already."

Just at this time.

The guards at the gate shouted, "Commander Chu has arrived!"

Chu Yunfei strode in, his face grim.

Fang Ligong turned around abruptly, snapped to attention, and saluted, his voice hoarse: "Your Excellency!"

"This humble servant is incompetent; the attack has failed. I..."

"okay."

Chu Yunfei raised his hand to interrupt him and went straight to the point: "Brother Ligong, now is not the time for self-criticism."

"Okamura Yasuji is desperate and trying to buy time with poison gas. Has Ji Ciyuan's Second Field Artillery Regiment been deployed yet?"

Fang Ligong immediately nodded: "The deployment has been completed, and the position was just built half an hour ago."

Chu Yunfei stared at the map: "Are the items we brought correct?"

"Is it the batch we seized before?"

"It matches up." Fang Ligong lowered his voice and reported, "A total of 3,200 rounds, all of them are Japanese special ammunition captured during previous battles."

Chu Yunfei snorted coldly: "The Japanese poison gas shells are mostly .75 caliber, so we still have to use their own artillery to fire back."

He turned to look out the window: "What's the wind direction?"

Fang Ligong glanced at the weather watch in his hand: "Southeast wind, force 3, directly towards the Japanese army's assembly area."

"God help me too."

A cold glint flashed in Chu Yunfei's eyes as he grabbed the phone on the table: "Get Ji Ciyuan on my phone!"

The call is connected.

Chu Yunfei spoke into the microphone in a chilling tone: "Ji Ciyuan, this is Chu Yunfei."

Ji Ciyuan's excited voice came from the other end of the phone: "Your Excellency!"

"The Second Field Artillery Regiment is ready. Please give instructions!"

"listen."

Chu Yunfei said, enunciating each word clearly, "Shove all those captured 'red tubes' and 'yellow tubes' into the cannon barrels."

"No need for test firing, no need for calibration, just fire straight at the Japanese positions and keep firing!"

"Yes!" Ji Ciyuan responded loudly, "Sir, how many?"

"Keep the light on!"

Chu Yunfei gritted his teeth: "I'll let Okamura Neiji know that if you do the first thing, don't blame me for doing the fifteenth!"

……

miles away.

The Second Field Artillery Corps had more than forty Japanese 75mm mountain guns lined up in a row. Boxes of wooden crates marked in red and yellow were pried open, revealing shells with a slightly strange appearance.

"Quickly! Bring everything up!"

Wearing a gas mask, Ji Ciyuan roared in a muffled voice, "You all better watch out! This thing doesn't recognize people. If we miss even a little bit, we'll all be done for!"

A loader, holding a shell with a skull and crossbones painted on it, asked with trembling hands, "Commander, are we really going to fire?"

"This thing is really bad luck."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Ji Ciyuan kicked him in the butt: "When the Japanese devils were poisoning our brothers, did they think about their karma?"

"Besides, this is exactly what our Second Field Artillery Regiment does!"

"Think of those blind brothers in the hospital, they're still howling. We have to avenge them!"

"Load according to the original plan!"

"Yes!"

"Load!"

The breechblock was pulled back, and the sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the gun.

"Firing data have been set!"

"Wind direction corrected!"

Ji Ciyuan swung his command flag sharply: "Release!!" "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The distinctive, crisp sound of Japanese mountain guns echoed throughout the room.

Japanese 8th Division forward positions.

A group of Japanese soldiers were huddled in a trench eating cold rice balls.

Several officers gathered together smoking, with slightly smug smiles on their faces.

"Did you hear that?"

“A few days ago, those Chinese were smoked by ‘special smoke’ and looked like headless flies.”

A Japanese captain laughed and said, "Their attack plan has been completely disrupted. The offensive, which was scheduled to be launched a few days ago, has been delayed until now."

"Yoshi, no matter how well-equipped the Chinese army is, they're just a bunch of bumpkins." Another sergeant curled his lip in disdain: "Looks like they're scared out of their wits, they haven't dared to attack for so many days."

Suddenly, a dense whistling sound came from the sky.

"Bombardment!"

The captain tossed away his cigarette butt, but didn't panic too much: "The sound is off. It shouldn't be heavy artillery; it's probably just a probing attack."

Without even peeking out, the sergeant deduced from the whistling and exploding shells: "It's a 75mm mountain gun."

"The Chinese heavy artillery must have suffered heavy losses in our previous shelling."

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

After several rounds of high-explosive shell firing.

Specialized munitions landed on the Japanese front lines, the explosions not deafening, but rather muffled, producing a series of strange "poof" sounds.

"what happened?"

Is the proportion of duds really that high?

The captain stood up in confusion, about to make a sarcastic remark, when he saw puffs of yellowish-green smoke rising from the landing point.

With the help of the southeast wind, the smoke seemed to come alive, spreading rapidly in all directions and sinking into the trenches.

"That is."

Before the captain could finish speaking, his expression suddenly changed drastically. He abruptly covered his mouth and nose, screaming, "Baka! It's poison gas!"

"Quickly put on your gas masks!!"

But it's too late.

The captain inhaled a slightly sweet breath, and then it felt as if a burning ember had been stuffed into his lungs.

"Cough cough cough! Cough cough!"

"Ah—! My eyes!"

"It itches! It hurts!!"

The trenches were in complete chaos.

The Second Field Artillery Regiment not only used phosgene, which causes asphyxiation, but also mixed in a large amount of high-concentration mustard gas.

Even when many Japanese soldiers frantically pulled out their gas masks, their exposed skin immediately became red, swollen, blistered, and ulcerated as soon as it came into contact with the smoke, just like it had been doused with concentrated sulfuric acid.

This is a high-concentration 'yellow tube'!
It's a new type of chemical weapon!
The captain put on the mask and looked at the soldiers rolling on the ground around him, his eyes filled with fear and despair.

"Help!"

"Help!"

The once invincible Japanese positions are now reduced to pitiful screams and dying gasps.

Nationalist Army Forward Command Post.

Chu Yunfei put down his binoculars, his face expressionless, his consciousness detaching from the three-dimensional combat map.

The 17th Regiment of the 16th Brigade was responsible for the frontal defense of the 8th Division.

Their organization is declining rapidly, which presents an excellent opportunity to attack.

Chu Yunfei turned around and looked at Yin Chongyue, the commander of the armored forces who had already assembled and was waiting for orders: "Chongyue."

"To!"

Yin Chongyue snapped to attention, his face covered by a gas mask, his voice muffled.

"did you see it?"

Chu Yunfei pointed to the opposite side: "The Japanese are in disarray."

"Saw!"

"Brother Yu'an has high expectations for you; otherwise, he wouldn't have recommended you to the Military Commission to serve as the commander of this armored brigade. Don't let Brother Yu'an down, and even more so, don't let the Chairman down."

"Please rest assured, sir, I will do my utmost to apply all the armored tactics I learned in Germany to the Japanese army."

"Pass the order."

Chu Yunfei straightened his collar and said coldly, "All attacking troops, put on your gas masks."

"Armored units lead the way, infantry follow."

"Charge! No prisoners needed."

"Yes!"

"No prisoners are needed!"

Yin Chongyue saluted, turned and rushed towards the tank group, shouting into the walkie-talkie, "Brothers! Avenge our grudges and settle our scores!"

"Everyone, make sure your masks are completely on!"

"According to the original battle plan, all regiments shall begin the assault!"

"Crush these bastards!"

With a thunderous roar, hundreds of M4A3 Sherman tanks, M3 half-tracks, and Soviet-supplied T-26 fast tanks launched their attack simultaneously, crushing the Japanese positions.

The tracks kicked up clouds of dust as they charged toward the entire line of positions of the Japanese 8th Division.

“Rumble——!!!”

The earth trembled, and the roar of engines rolled across the plain like muffled thunder.

Inside the forward command post of the 17th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Regiment Commander Yusuke Ikeda stood pale-faced in front of the observation post, his eyes filled with disbelief and fear.

Before the poisonous gas had completely dissipated, massive steel silhouettes tore through the smoke and dust from within the yellowish-green fog of death, crushing in with an unstoppable force.

"Chariot!"

"Enemy tank formation!"

The piercing cries of the observation post were drowned out by the artillery fire.

It wasn't the Soviet-made T-26 that the Japanese army was familiar with—thin-skinned and heavy-duty—nor was it the small, captured Nationalist-made aircraft that could only be used as fire support points.

Those were all American-made M4A3 Sherman medium tanks!
The wide tracks kicked up clouds of dust, and the imposing 75mm main gun gleamed with a chilling killing intent in the sunlight.

Behind them were countless M3 half-track armored vehicles and infantry following closely behind, like an insurmountable steel tsunami that instantly overwhelmed the Japanese defense line that had already been ravaged by poison gas.

"Fight back! Fight back quickly!"

Yusuke Ikeda roared at the top of his lungs, "Where are our 37mm rapid-fire cannons? Fire!"

"boom!"

A surviving Japanese 37mm rapid-fire gun had just fired a shell, and before it could even see the impact point, it was overturned by a Sherman tank that was charging at the front.

Immediately afterwards, the coaxial and bow machine guns on the Sherman tank opened fire simultaneously, and the dense rain of bullets turned the surrounding Japanese soldiers who were trying to reorganize their defenses into sieves.

"Bang~!"

"It's too hard!"

"It's impossible to penetrate!"

A Japanese gunner cried out in despair as he watched helplessly as his armor-piercing shell bounced off the Sherman's sloping frontal armor, leaving only a faint white mark.

The enemy's massive turret merely rotated slightly, and its dark muzzle was pointed directly at him.

"boom!"

With a flash of light, the rapid-fire cannon and its gunner were reduced to ashes.

Faced with overwhelming armor and firepower, the Japanese anti-tank weapons were completely ineffective.

Those Japanese suicide squad members, strapped with explosives and attempting to charge at the tanks, were cut in two by the large-caliber machine guns mounted on the M3 half-tracks before they could take more than a few steps.

The summary of the Battle of Qiongzhou Island has already been distributed to the troops, and the armored coordination tactics of various units have been further evolved.

Nationalist Army armored brigade, offensive front line.

Yin Chongyue sat in his command vehicle, calmly observing the battlefield through the periscope.

Wearing a gas mask, his voice, deep and powerful, reached the ears of every tank commander via radio: "Attention all tanks, maintain wedge formation!"

"Don't linger, don't stop!"

"Our mission is to break through! Break through!"

"Tear the Japanese defenses apart completely!"

"Yes!"

The tank crews were filled with excitement.

This was the first large-scale armored operation since the formation of the armored forces.

In the past, it was always the Japanese who bullied them with their tank divisions.

Now, they are driving steel monsters weighing tens of tons to crush those little Japanese devils who can only yell and scream!

"Japanese machine gun position at three o'clock!"

"High-explosive shell, one round loaded."

"boom!"

A single shell struck with pinpoint accuracy, instantly silencing the machine gun bunker that was still spitting fire wildly, sending rubble and limbs flying into the air.

"Infantry group directly ahead!"

"Machine gun fire!"

"Da da da da da-"

Several vehicle-mounted machine guns formed an impenetrable net of fire, reaping the lives of Japanese soldiers like wheat being harvested.

This was a one-sided massacre.

The armored torrent of the 88th Army Group plunged fiercely into the defensive line of the Japanese 17th Regiment.

In just half an hour, the first line of defense painstakingly built by the Japanese army collapsed completely.

……

Japanese 17th Regiment Command.

Yusuke Ikeda slumped in his chair, listening to the approaching rumble of cannons and the crushing sound of tank tracks outside, his eyes vacant.

"Your Excellency, the Captain!"

"The entire First Battalion has been wiped out!"

"The second battalion has suffered more than half its casualties and is retreating to the second pre-established position!"

"The 3rd Infantry Battalion has been lost to contact."

The chief of staff's voice trembled with tears: "The Chinese have too many tanks!"

"Our direct-fire artillery is completely incapable of destroying the enemy's armor."

"It's over. It's all over."

Yusuke Ikeda muttered to himself, a bitter smile playing on his lips.

He remembered the poisonous gas that had filled the air, his men who had died in agony, and the steel monsters that were now raging.

ruthless!
Too bad!
They left no way out, no chance of survival!
"Captain!"

"The Chinese tanks are charging toward my command post."

With a loud bang.

The wall of the command post was blasted down by a shell, and the massive body of a Sherman tank rolled over the rubble and came into view.

The dark muzzle of the cannon was pointed directly at Yusuke Ikeda's forehead.

"Your Majesty, the Heavenly Locust. Banzai"

In despair, Yusuke Ikeda drew his sword, but before he could commit seppuku, he was riddled with bullets by the ensuing machine gun fire.
"Commander, what's that?"

"Just a Japanese soldier, I don't know. Keep advancing!" (End of Chapter)