The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 319 Tiger Tiger Tiger (Two-in-One Chapter)

It was around 4:00 AM on December 8th, the 27th year of the Republic of China.

Near the airport in the southern suburbs outside Taiyuan city, on a small, snow-covered hill.

Crouching low and tiptoeing, AT used this somewhat uncomfortable but more concealing motion to sprint up the hill.

After running up the mountain in a flash, he saw Annie holding a pair of binoculars, using the moonlight to observe the airport a mile or two away.

He lowered his voice and said, "Annie, our brothers are assembled."

However, it's uncertain where the Military Intelligence Bureau and Yan Xishan's men are now, or whether they will help hold off the Japanese.

What's the next step? Should we get those former Jin-Sui Army artillerymen to open fire and blow up the Japanese aviation fuel?

Faced with AT's serious expression, Anne put down her binoculars and said coldly, "This is a serious occasion. Major AT, please call me Chief of Staff Anne."

Upon hearing this, AT was completely dumbfounded.

He quickly realized that after this mission was over, Hu Biao, that damned bastard, would probably be kneeling on a washboard until it was worn out.

While feeling a bit smug inside, he also revealed an expression of watching a good show on his face.

In fact, AT and other time travelers usually get along very well with Annie; there's absolutely no way they would act like this, making her call him 'Chief of Staff Annie' in such a pretentious way.

Annie's behavior was clearly due to her anger towards Hu Biao.

However, she wasn't angry at Hu Biao for making her carry out such a dangerous mission; she was angry that the guy, in his capacity as Commander Hu, issued her orders.

What is this jerk thinking? Is Annie such a tactless person? If he had spoken to her properly, would she have refused?
So when she received the urgent telegram, Annie immediately took action.

There was no delay at all; various arrangements were made.
On one hand, they had AT gather a group of brothers under their command and have them find a way to sneak out of the city with weapons, start assembling outside the airport in the southern suburbs, and prepare to pull off a heist.

This group of brothers consisted of a dozen or so elite men that Annie brought back from Taiyuan to help when she returned from Pingding County.

In addition, they have recruited some people in Taiyuan City in the last month or two.

A small portion of them are people from the underworld who value loyalty and brotherhood.

Most of them were veterans of the Jin-Sui Army who were unwilling to follow Yan Xishan to retreat to northwestern Shanxi and Shaanxi Province, nor were they willing to surrender to the Japanese. They changed their names and identities in the city, but their lives were relatively difficult.

With all the above personnel added together, excluding Annie and AT, there are a total of 76 people, and their weapons and equipment are quite good.

On the other hand, Annie personally contacted the people at the Military Intelligence Bureau's Taiyuan station, as well as Yan Xishan's spies in Taiyuan.

Hopefully, once they start fighting at the airport, they can help snipe the Japanese reinforcements as much as possible, giving them more time to act.

However, acting so decisively doesn't mean the girl isn't angry.

Of course! Even though she was angry, Annie quickly composed herself.

Instead of answering AT's question immediately, he picked up his binoculars again and started planning and deliberating in his mind while observing the positions of the planes, the deployment of sentries, and the strength of the troops in the airport.

The airport was heavily guarded, with about half a battalion, or five or six hundred Japanese soldiers, stationed there.

The hundreds of Japanese soldiers on night duty were also very vigilant; they set up a large circle of barbed wire around the entire airport.

Although the barbed wire was not electrified, there was a tall wooden watchtower every short distance.

The sentries on the watchtower have a commanding view and excellent visibility.

Some watchtowers even had searchlights, which the Japanese sentries operated and moved back and forth, so that anyone caught in their light could not hide.

In addition, there are several patrol teams constantly patrolling the airport, as well as air defense positions, which also pose a threat.

The air defense positions, in particular, pose the greatest threat. Although they are few in number, their air defense weapons are mostly anti-aircraft machine guns and small-caliber anti-aircraft cannons.

But once this thing is laid flat, it's a disaster for attackers.

According to the intelligence that Annie and her team had gathered, the Japanese airport was so heavily guarded because they had suffered a great loss in this regard during the Battle of Xinkou last year.

Specifically, it was their field airfield in Yangmingbao at the time.

The 769th Regiment of the 358th Brigade of the 129th Division of our Party successfully launched a night attack, destroying 24 of their various aircraft in one battle.

Therefore, after suffering losses, the Japanese troops stationed in Shanxi Province instinctively strengthened the security of the airport.

Fortunately, even so, there is still a big loophole in the current defense of these Japanese troops, or rather, the calm for a year has made the Japanese commander of the airport defense force careless.

Because the Japanese planes have been flying at an astonishing frequency these past few days.

To make it easier to refuel the planes, they actually piled up large drums filled with aviation gasoline in a corner on the right side of the airport.

There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the Japanese army's actions.

Under normal circumstances, the attackers would have no way to break through the Japanese soldiers' multiple lines of defense and blow up these oil drums.

The key issue is that two weeks ago, Annie and her team recruited seven or eight artillerymen from the former Jin-Sui Army, and these artillerymen were actually hiding a Shanxi-made 82mm mortar.

There are only six shells, but that should be enough.

This thing is actually a copy of the French-made Brand mortar made by the Taiyuan Arsenal a few years ago.

Due to insufficient raw materials and processing technology, its range is far inferior to the original; however, its maximum range still reaches 2800 meters, enough to hit that pile of oil drums from the outside and cause them to explode.

Without gasoline, the Japanese planes naturally couldn't take off; this is why AT asked Anne whether they should open fire immediately.

However, after thinking about it seriously for a minute or two, Annie shook her head and said:
"Don't rush to fire. Just blowing up the Japanese aviation fuel won't stop their planes from taking off at dawn."

These days, propeller planes aren't so fussy; they can make do with other types of gasoline. Once the Japanese bring some gasoline from the city, they can refuel and continue flying.

So we still need to sneak in, firstly to blow up the Japanese planes, and secondly to sneak into the dormitory area and take out the Japanese pilots.

Especially the Japanese pilots; they were trained as elites, and each one was more valuable than the planes themselves. If this group of pilots were wiped out, even that old Japanese soldier, Yoshio Shinotsuka, would be heartbroken.

Upon hearing this, AT wanted to object, mainly because the Japanese were heavily guarded and it would be very difficult to sneak in.

Rather than taking the risk, it would be better to use other methods, such as blowing up the pile of fuel drums containing aviation gasoline and then using the remaining shells to damage the airport runway.

However, AT immediately rejected this suggestion as soon as it came to mind.

Because the requirements for takeoff and landing sites for propeller planes in those days were extremely low. Even if they bombed the runway, the Japanese could simply fill it with some soil and compact it, which wouldn't delay the flight for long.

So besides sneaking in and launching a sudden attack, are there really any other better ways?

Realizing that dawn was approaching and they didn't have much time left to act, AT decisively said, "Alright! We'll do as you say, Chief of Staff. How will the tasks be divided?"

Anne looked at the wristwatch on her wrist and said, "Check the time! It's 4:12 now."

The mortar team will leave three men. After the fire starts, they will prioritize destroying the oil drums, and then use the remaining shells for fire support.

Oh, right! Leave a telegraph operator behind to send a telegram. Once successful, have him send Hu Biao three words: "Tiger, Tiger, Tiger".

There are 72 men left. I'll take 10 brothers to take out those Japanese pilots, and you take the remaining 62 brothers to bomb the Japanese planes.

If everything goes smoothly, then we'll both start at 5 o'clock sharp.

If the situation is exposed during the process, then there's nothing more to say; just take action.

Just as our Commander Hu said, we must not allow these Japanese planes to take off at all costs, lest they disrupt our operational plan to attack Pingding County.

The two then got to work. They chose a blind spot in the sentry's line of sight, and after the Japanese patrol and searchlights moved past, AT took out a pair of pliers and cut a half-person-high opening in the barbed wire.

After the group filed in, Annie and I each took some men and headed towards different targets...

******
At 4:31 a.m., in the northeast of Pingding County, about four or five miles away.

After marching all the way, Hu Biao, who had just arrived here, stopped and wiped the sweat from his forehead, which had been dripping with sweat from running.

Hu Biao raised his voice and issued a new command:
"Stop advancing. Everyone, start a fire, drink some water, eat some dry rations, and then rest for two hours to regain some strength so that we can attack Pingding County and kill that Japanese devil Fujioka Takekumura to avenge the villagers of Lijiazhuang."

No sooner had the words fallen than a huge "Good!" and echoes of "Avenge our fellow villagers!" rang out.

This was the sound of two or three thousand people speaking at the same time. The huge sound wave traveled far and wide, so much so that it could be clearly heard in Pingding County, several miles away.

More importantly, the troops of the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment that attacked Pingding County numbered far more than just two or three thousand.

Besides the two or three thousand people in the northeast direction where Hu Biao was located, another group of time travelers, also with similar numbers of troops, arrived outside Pingding County, but in a different direction.

The army, totaling tens of thousands of men, completely besieged the small county town.

Then the problem arose: the Subei Independent Regiment, which originally had only about 10,000 soldiers, lost more than 1,000 men in half a month of guerrilla warfare.

Then they sent out a lot of troops to block the Japanese reinforcements. How come there are still tens of thousands of people here?

Don't ask! The answer is that in this nation, there are always some men whose blood is still hot.

When the more than two hundred people of Lijiazhuang, who had not provoked or offended anyone, were almost all killed by the Japanese soldiers as if they were venting their anger.

The news that Commander Hu and the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment were going to attack Pingding County to avenge their fellow villagers was spread overnight.

One by one, the honest and simple men became enraged. They picked up the shotguns they used to hunt wild animals, or even just a machete and a hoe.

Together with their uncles, nephews, and nieces from the same village, they spontaneously rushed to Pingding County to help.

These villagers who came spontaneously numbered more than four thousand; adding the more than five thousand from the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment who attacked the county town, the total number was over ten thousand.

Moreover, this is not the final number of participants in this attack on the county town.

Upon hearing the news, more villagers rushed over with torches, causing the number of people outside the city to continue to rise.

Under Hu Biao's orders, the crowd gathered outside the city lit bonfires.

While they could dispel the chill from their bodies and eat and drink some dry rations to recover their strength, the area outside the city was filled with firelight and people.

This scene made Fujioka Takeoma, who had hastily retreated into the city just three hours earlier, gasp in shock.

Little did he know that nearly half of these people were farmers who didn't even have weapons.

For a time, even including the local garrison, they still had about three thousand combat personnel, giving them the advantage of defending the city.

还有22门各种口径的火炮，其中包括了75毫米口径的94式山炮，还有38式野炮各6门，92式步兵炮10门。

Even after daybreak, the air force continued to provide full support.

But seeing so many people outside the city, and more people with torches in the distance joining in, they realized that...

He thought of his own soldiers. After days of fighting, their morale, physical strength, and spirit were already quite low. Coupled with the huge losses from the overnight retreat to Pingding County, their combat effectiveness had been severely reduced.

More importantly, the incredible victories of Hu Biao and the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment in the past uncontrollably flooded Fujioka Takeo's mind.

In short, the Japanese major general now felt a strong threat of death, and he was afraid.

Driven by a strong survival instinct, he disregarded his image and roared at his adjutant beside him: "Send a telegram! Send a telegram to Lord Yoshio Shinotsuka immediately!"

Tell him that we are now surrounded in Pingding County by the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment with more than 20,000 troops, and that we are in constant danger of being wiped out.

We need reinforcements, a lot of reinforcements..."

At 4:53, Hu Biao, who was outside Pingding County, lit a cigarette with a piece of firewood to refresh himself.

Suddenly remembering something, he gave a new command to Xiao Cui, who was holding a stick with two steamed buns skewered on one end and roasting them over the fire:

"Pass down the order: we will not take any prisoners in this battle."

Before Xiao Cui could say anything with an "Ah," Hu Biao turned to Zhao Zheng beside him and said with utmost seriousness:
"Old Zhao, I know this order was wrong; it doesn't align with the principle of uniting all forces to resist Japan!"

But I couldn't control myself, and I couldn't convince myself to let these beasts who slaughtered the villagers of Lizhuang go.

So just pretend you don't know anything about this! I'll send a telegram to the great man afterwards, taking full responsibility for everything, regardless of the consequences.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Zheng, who was usually a kind-hearted person, immediately became enraged like never before.

He immediately started cursing: "You bastard surnamed Hu, you're talking nonsense! What kind of person do you take me for?"

Just as Hu Biao was about to give a proper explanation and say that he really couldn't help himself...

Zhao Zheng continued to curse: "It was agreed long ago that you would make the decisions on military matters, and I would make the decisions on living and logistical matters. Now you want to go back on your word?"

Yan Liang! Record this immediately and send an urgent telegram to headquarters.

Our army will immediately launch a general offensive against the Japanese Independent Mixed Brigade No. 9, which is entrenched in Pingding County.

Given that these Japanese soldiers were extremely vicious and aroused great public resentment, the high command of the Northern Jiangsu Independent Regiment, after collective discussion, concluded that they were not candidates to be won over.

Therefore, it was unanimously agreed that they would annihilate the entire enemy force, taking no prisoners.

The above statement is tantamount to Zhao Zheng voluntarily taking on a considerable portion of the responsibility.

Yan Liang, one of the senior cadres of our Party who came with Zhao Zheng to help, naturally knew about the above statement and how it might affect Zhao Zheng in the future.

I froze, unsure of what to do.

Seeing this, Zhao Zheng glared at him fiercely and cursed, "Go now! I am the highest-ranking person in charge of our Party's Independent Regiment in Northern Jiangsu. This is an order."

After a moment of stunned silence, Hu Biao finally came to his senses and said to Zhao Zheng with a grin:

"Old Zhao! You're just my type, Hu Biao. I've decided you're my partner from now on, and no one else will work for me."

It's unclear why Zhao Zheng is so angry today. After hearing this, he started cursing at Hu Biao again: "What Tiger of Shanghai? Hu Biao, you little brat, you're just a dog-faced bastard, you change your mind in an instant."

"Yes, yes, yes, I was born in the Year of the Dog!" Hu Biao responded without caring about being scolded.

After that, none of them wanted to talk anymore.

Because they knew that whether or not the earlier statement about not taking Japanese prisoners, or even the attack on Pingding County, would actually take place was still uncertain.

Everything depends on how Annie and AT's actions in Taiyuan City go.

We'll see if those two can take down the Japanese airfield.

Judging from the timing, their operation has probably already begun, or is about to begin; however, given the distance, they have no better options than to offer their silent blessings.

"Boss lady, you two absolutely have to succeed!"

Hu Biao, Mina, Mr. Nanze, Chaozi, and many other time travelers silently prayed in their hearts at this moment...

(End of this chapter)