Anti-Japanese War: From Becoming Chu Yunfei to Rising

The oil problem has always plagued the current Nationalist government.

The difficulty of oil exploration and extraction is also a reflection of a nation's actual strength.

Despite drilling across the country, the Japanese have yet to discover oil, primarily due to insufficient exploration technology.

There is also a view in Japanese academia that the locust army "failed at the last minute".

The fuel consumption of these more than a thousand tanks, along with their accompanying tracked vehicles and trucks, is astronomical.

Fang Ligong was well aware that this was indeed the Nationalist army's Achilles' heel.

This is also one of the reasons why Chu Yunfei did not vigorously promote the Northwest Horse Administration before, but wanted to prioritize the transformation to mule and horse-based forces before considering the transformation to mechanized forces.

Fang Ligong's face turned pale; this problem was indeed the KMT's Achilles' heel.

"If US aid stops, or if there is a land and sea blockade, our tanks are likely to break down. Will the oil fields in Yumen be able to supply them?"

"Yumen?"

Chu Yunfei shook his head: "Due to the limited scale, the current troops are already struggling to be supplied. They also have to be transported all the way from the northwest to the front line, which results in a lot of losses. The same goes for the oil in Ren'anqiang. It's just that we don't know if there are other oil fields in Toungoo that we can explore and exploit in the future."

"Right now, we must find oil ourselves, find large oil fields. China is so big, there must be oil fields distributed here."

Chu Yunfei's finger first landed on the westernmost part of Northwest China—XJ: "Here, Karamay."

"As far as I know, the Black Oil Mountains there are incredibly rich in oil. The Soviets had their eyes on that place for a long time."

Fang Ligong's eyes lit up, but then dimmed: "Sir, XJ is now Sheng Shicai's territory."

“That ‘XJ King’ is a fence-sitter, constantly switching between the Soviet Union and Chongqing. The situation is too chaotic.”

“Mining in XJ is too politically risky, and the journey is too long; it's not a solution for our immediate needs.”

Chu Yunfei's finger moved swiftly eastward, landing on the Shaanxi Plateau.

"Yanchang Oilfield".

"This is China's earliest oil field. Although it's a bit old, it still has its basic structure."

Fang Ligong hesitated for a moment: "The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region should be in charge now, and the oil refinery also belongs to them."

“We can talk to Yan’an and provide technical and equipment support in exchange for their oil. It would be a win-win situation.”

Chu Yunfei's gaze continued eastward.

They finally stopped on the land beneath their feet—Shandong, near the mouth of the Yellow River.

He drew a deep circle with his finger around the Dongying area: "The real treasure should be here!"

Fang Ligong leaned closer, looking at the desolate saline-alkali land with a blank expression: "Dongying?"

"Sir, that's all reed marshes and mudflats there, how could there be oil?"

"do not know"

Chu Yunfei said decisively, "But we can only take a gamble."

In order to conceal his ability to "predict the future".

He lied without batting an eye: "When we captured the Japanese headquarters in Jinan, we seized a portion of the Japanese army's top-secret exploration data."

"Japanese geological experts have already discovered signs of oil and gas in this area, but due to the urgency of the war and technological limitations, they haven't had time to confirm whether there is actually a large oil field. But we have no other choice."

Upon hearing this, Fang Ligong gasped: "If there really is oil, then we're in trouble."

"Don't be too happy too soon."

"Knowing there is oil is one thing, but not knowing the scale or whether it can be extracted is another matter."

“We have no drilling equipment, no oil refinery, and no engineers who know the ropes.”

"That's one of the reasons why I agreed to Stilwell's conditions."

Chu Yunfei sat back in his chair, a shrewd glint in his eyes: "We must rely on external forces."

"Brother Ligong, immediately draft two top-secret plans."

"First, we secretly contacted the Soviet Union through the channels of the 'Civilian Machinery Factory' to seek their cooperation with us in the Shandong region."

“Tell them that we are willing to exchange light industrial products and food for their oil drilling experts and refining equipment.”

"The Soviets had world-class oil technology in Baku, and they were very interested in finding oil."

"Second, we contacted the United States to seek their cooperation with us in the Karamay oil field."

"To ensure the logistics of those 1200 tanks, we need U.S. technical support to explore 'potential' oil fields."

“We could promise American companies certain commercial benefits, such as postwar priority passage rights or joint ventures to build factories.”

"Bring both the US and the Soviet Union into this!"

crunch.

The car came to a smooth stop, and Li Jingzhong, who had been following behind, quickly stepped forward to open the car door for the two of them.

Chu Yunfei smiled and nodded in acknowledgment, then said, "Brother Ligong, we still need to discuss the specific details further."
-
Central Shandong, along the Jiaoji Railway, west of Weixian.

This is the only road leading to Qingdao.

The heavy rain had just stopped, but the roads were still muddy and slippery.

These muddy roads are a nightmare for mechanized troops, but for another ancient and swift branch of the military, they are an excellent hunting ground.

"Drive! Drive!"

Accompanied by the thunderous sound of hooves, a massive cavalry force swept across the open field.

Warhorses neighed, and sabers flew like a forest.

As the vanguard of the northern route group, they are relentlessly pursuing the fleeing Japanese army at a speed of 100 li per day.

Behind the cavalry, Li Yannian's 34th Army, though without tank cover, was in high spirits. They even requisitioned all the mule carts along the way. Some even threw away their backpacks and carried only guns and ammunition, running wildly through the mud to keep up with the cavalry.

"Hurry up!"

A jeep covered in mud sped past on the side of the road, and standing in it was Li Yannian, the commander-in-chief of the 34th Army Group.

Since the massacre of prisoners of war in Jinan to raise the flag, this veteran general has become even more ferocious, but he is also more like a drawn sword, its sharpness fully revealed.

"Commander, reconnaissance battalion reporting!"

The adjutant put down the walkie-talkie and shouted, "Commander He's cavalry vanguard has engaged the rearguard of the Japanese 59th Division, right up in Changle County!"

"The Japanese are burning down the warehouse and are trying to blow up the railway bridge!"

Li Yannian's eyes widened, and he drew his pistol and fired a shot into the sky: "Pass on my order! The 57th Army under Liu Anqi, abandon all baggage and heavy weapons, send the able-bodied men forward, and wipe out these little devils."

"Tell the cavalrymen in front, whatever you do, don't let the Japanese blow up the bridge!"

"Even if we have to use horses to ram them, we'll kill those Japanese demolition experts on the bridge piers!"

"Yes!"

……

Outside Changle County, the Bailang River Bridge.

An reinforced company of the Japanese 59th Division is desperately resisting the enemy, relying on the bridgehead and temporary fortifications, while engineers are busily placing explosives under the bridge piers.

"Shoot! Shoot!"

The Japanese company commander brandished his sword and roared orders to his machine gunners to suppress the advancing Nationalist troops.

However, before he could finish speaking, the sound of the earth trembling drowned out the sound of gunfire.

"Kill them all!!!"

Cavalrymen lacked the heavy armor of tanks, but they possessed unparalleled speed and a fearless spirit.

"Cavalry! Chinese cavalry!"

The Japanese soldiers screamed in terror.

"Da da da--"

The light machine guns and submachine guns on horseback opened fire first, and a dense hail of bullets swept across the bridgehead, pinning the Japanese troops down.

Immediately afterwards, the cavalrymen under He Zhuguo's command galloped across the trenches, their gleaming sabers drawing deadly arcs in the sunlight.

The distance of a few dozen meters was covered in the blink of an eye.

In close-quarters combat, a cavalryman's saber is more intimidating than a rifle.

"Pfft!"

One by one, the heads of Japanese soldiers rolled into the dust.

As a cavalry company commander saw that the Japanese engineers were about to detonate the fuse, he suddenly spurred his horse and rammed it into the fuse.

"boom!"

The grenade exploded under the horse's belly, and the warhorse collapsed with a mournful cry. But the company commander, the moment he landed, used his body to extinguish the burning fuse, then drew his pistol and shot the two stunned Japanese engineers dead on the spot.

"Charge! Leave no one alive!"

The infantrymen of Li Yannian's troops who arrived later shouted and rushed onto the bridge.

In just two days, the vanguard of the Northern Route Group had already arrived in Weixian.

It's less than 150 kilometers from here to Qingdao!
The Japanese army stockpiled a large amount of combat supplies here and set up a tight defense line, attempting to use the Wei River to block the National Army's eastward advance.

P.S.: This is the Weihe River in Weifang, not the Huaihe River.
But they were faced with Li Yannian and He Zhuguo, who were bloodthirsty.

This defensive line only lasted for half a day.

When the first flag of the Republic of China was raised over Weixian, the Japanese garrison commander was shot dead by Nationalist soldiers who stormed into his command post before he even had a chance to burn his codebook. "Send a telegram to the commander!"

Standing on the Weihe Bridge, Li Yannian looked down at the surging river flowing eastward and exclaimed with high spirits: "My troops have recaptured Weixian and are now advancing at full speed towards Jiaozhou and Jimo!"

"Yes!"
-
Meanwhile, in southern Shandong, on the southern section of the Jinpu Railway.

Compared to the unstoppable advance of the northern route group, the fighting here was much more intense and protracted.

Pengcheng has been a strategic location fought over by military strategists since ancient times.

At this moment, this place has become a giant meat grinder.

The main force of the Japanese 12th Army was annihilated, but the remnants of the 65th Division, as well as tens of thousands of puppet troops and security regiments that had been urgently withdrawn from northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui, still gathered here.

Relying on the treacherous terrain surrounding Xuzhou, such as Jiuli Mountain and Yunlong Mountain, they constructed a ring-shaped defensive fortification, attempting to hold out and wait for an opportunity to break out to the south and retreat to Bengbu or Nanjing.

The person in charge of securing the area was none other than Wang Zhonglian, the commander-in-chief of the 31st Army Group, who had previously been severely reprimanded by Chu Yunfei.

"Go all out, fire two full loads, and then immediately send a telegram to headquarters requesting a resupply of artillery shells."

Wang Zhonglian was standing on a high ground north of Su County, holding binoculars, his eyes bloodshot.

He's holding back a lot of energy right now.

Xu Kang was arrested and criticized in a circular throughout the army.

There was even the threat of being "relegated to a Class B unit," which made him, a senior member of the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy, lose face in front of his colleagues.

Now, Chu Yunfei has given him a chance to redeem himself by guarding the southern gate of Xuzhou. If he fails again, he will really have no choice but to commit suicide to atone for his sins!
"Commander, the Japanese are trying to break through again!"

The adjutant beside him pointed at the dust-filled highway ahead and shouted.

Several thousand Japanese and puppet troops, under the cover of several Type 97 tanks, launched a frenzied attack on the Nationalist army's blocking positions.

"That's the main force of the Japanese 65th Division!"

Wang Zhonglian immediately guessed the Japanese army's plan. He shouted into the walkie-talkie, "Liao Yunzhou!"

"To!"

The calm voice of Liao Yunzhou, commander of the 110th Division, came from the other end of the phone.

"Your 110th Division is the main force, get them pushing forward!"

"I don't care what methods you use, even if you have to pile up corpses, you have to stop the Japanese devils from leaving!"

"If you let even one Japanese soldier escape, I'll kill you with my own hands!"

"Yes, we'll hold the position as long as we're here!"

On the position, Liao Yunzhou put down the phone and turned to look at the soldiers around him.

These young faces showed not only fear, but even more so, a resolute determination.

"brothers!"

Liao Yunzhou drew his pistol and stood by the trench: "Behind us is Suxian County, and the Huai River!"

"If the Japanese get away, our 31st Army Group will never be able to hold our heads high in the Nationalist army again!"

"The machine gun companies of each regiment must block the roads!"

"We need to organize a demolition team, prepare explosives, and specifically target the Japanese tanks!"

"And all those Type 31 rocket launchers that were previously allocated to us, use them all! We absolutely cannot let a single Japanese soldier escape!"

"Yes!"

The regimental commanders accepted their orders and departed.

"kill!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A fierce battle broke out instantly.

In order to escape, the Japanese troops were fighting desperately, launching wave after wave of attacks.

However, under the relentless resistance of the 110th Division, the Japanese army left behind a trail of corpses and was unable to advance an inch.

In particular, Liao Yunzhou, a remarkably discreet underground party member, was extremely methodical in commanding operations.

He utilized the terrain to establish layers of defense and resisted step by step, gradually wearing down the Japanese army's morale.

On the other side of the battle line, fighting alongside Wang Zhonglian's troops was a special force—the Eighth Route Army's Eastern Expeditionary Column.

Although he suffered some losses when he was besieged before, Li Yunlong was the kind of person who never held grudges (he would take revenge on the spot).

"Old Zhao, look over there!"

Li Yunlong lay prone in the grass, pointing to the railway line southeast of Xuzhou in the distance: "That old bastard Wang Zhonglian really went all out this time, drawing away the main force of the Japanese army."

"But we can't just sit idly by!"

Zhao Gang, holding binoculars, observed the Japanese flank: "Old Li, what do you mean?"

"hey-hey."

Li Yunlong grinned, revealing a set of white teeth: "The Japanese are now focused on running south, their backsides are definitely showing."

"Send the order to Zhang Dabiao!"

"One of you sneak up from the flank."

"Second and Third Regiments, cooperate with the comrades of the New Fourth Army and tear down all the railways and highways from Xuzhou eastward to Haizhou (Lianyungang)!"

"I'll make sure these little devils have nowhere to go, neither to heaven nor to hell!"

"okay!"

As Li Yunlong issued his order.

Half an hour later, the Eighth Route Army soldiers, like tigers descending the mountain, fiercely attacked the Japanese army's weak point from the flank.

Meanwhile, in the Huai'an and Yancheng areas further south...

The main force of the New Fourth Army also launched a large-scale sabotage operation in accordance with the joint command's deployment.

On the canal, Japanese transport ships were bombed and sunk, blocking the waterway.

On the highway, bridges were blown up, cutting off the Japanese army's retreat route.

The entire land of northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui seemed to have become a huge net, tightening little by little, trapping the remnants of the Japanese army within it.
That evening, in Jinan, at the front-line command headquarters.

"Sir!"

Fang Ligong compiled the reports of victory onto the sand table, his face beaming with undisguised joy: "The current situation is very clear."

"The Northern Route Group is making rapid progress. Li Yannian and He Zhuguo's troops have approached the outskirts of Qingdao and are expected to launch a general offensive within three days."

"In the central region, various units are clearing out the remaining enemy forces in central Shandong. A large number of puppet troops have defected, and the security situation is rapidly improving."

"On the southern front, Wang Zhonglian did not falter this time, firmly blocking the Japanese army's escape route south from Xuzhou. With the flanking attacks from the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, the enemy in Xuzhou is now trapped!"

Chu Yunfei stood in front of the map, looking at Xuzhou, which was now heavily surrounded by blue arrows, and nodded slightly.

"very good."

His voice was calm, but it conveyed a sense of confidence in controlling the overall situation: "Tell all units at the front not to let their guard down."

"Especially in the Qingdao area, we must do everything possible to prevent the remnants of the Japanese army from evacuating."

"Yes!"

After recording the order, Fang Ligong hesitated for a moment and then said, "Sir, there's one more thing."

"A telegram came from Yan'an saying that the troops under Commander Liu's command had crossed the Pinghan Railway and were preparing to join forces with the New Fourth Army."

"They asked how the next phase of the operation should be allocated?"

"Reply to Yan'an."

"Welcome our friendly forces to advance eastward and fight against the Japanese."

"It is recommended that Liu's troops continue to advance eastward, towards central and northern Jiangsu, in accordance with the original battle plan, to join forces with the New Fourth Army and focus on striking at the remaining forces of the Japanese and puppet troops along the Grand Canal."

Li Jingzhong turned and left: "Okay."

Speaking of it.

Fang Ligong was tidying up the documents on the table when he suddenly remembered something. He pulled out a newly delivered briefing from the bottom of the folder and a bright smile appeared on his face: "Sir, besides our side, we've also received good news from the south."

"Oh?" Chu Yunfei turned around. "Where have Commander Xue and his men gotten to?"

"Commander Chen Cixiu's report: The Japanese army's 'strategic retreat' in China has completely turned into a major defeat."

Fang Ligong pointed to the southernmost point of the map and traced the Yangtze River waterway eastward: "The various departments of the South China Joint Command are making rapid progress. The troops of Commanders Xue Yue and Sun Lianzhong are relentlessly pursuing and attacking along both banks of the Yangtze River."

"The remaining Japanese troops had no will to fight and abandoned their armor and weapons."

"Currently, the vanguard of our South China Army has crossed Jiujiang and advanced to the Anqing line!"

Anqing?

A glint flashed in Chu Yunfei's eyes as he looked at the strategic location on the map, which was not far from Jinling: "Such a fast pace! This speed of advancement is truly beyond our expectations."

Fang Ligong replied with a smile, "Ou Zhen and Li Yutang are advancing at an extremely fast pace; anyone who didn't know better would think they were cavalry."

"However, it was precisely because speed is of the essence that Anqing was threatened so quickly."

"With the loss of Anqing, the Japanese defenses of Nanjing will inevitably be shaken. If I were Okamura Yasuji, I probably wouldn't be able to sleep right now." (End of Chapter)