Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 176: Bombing Penang? It seems that the Japanese are really crazy
Unlike the Nomonhan Battle in history where only the 23rd Division was deployed, this time the Kwantung Army dispatched the st Division, the nd Division, and the th Division, three Class A divisions at once.

The head coach was no longer Komatsubara, the so-called "expert in combat against Russia," but Kenkichi Ueda himself.

Because the journey was long and the Japanese army had to travel a long distance, and their marching speeds were different, the Japanese troops were unable to assemble in the Bayinzong area immediately.

Marshal Zhu naturally took advantage of this opportunity to mobilize elite troops to continuously harass the Japanese army, and the two sides engaged in contact fighting.

Then, there was another air force battle.

The Japanese army arrived in a hurry, so it was naturally difficult for them to gain any advantage over Marshal Zhu, who was well-rested. Especially in the air force, the Japanese army suffered a great loss.

This was actually a very routine and normal firefight, and Zheng Yi didn't take it seriously. During the firefight, his camera company also arrived, and he had been arranging these cameramen to participate in the team's first battle.

He even specially lent some General Ma who were willing to return to China to take photos to provide materials for infiltrating Japan.

Zheng Yi didn't think that the Japanese plane could drop a bomb on his head. Although he didn't understand military affairs, he followed Marshal Zhu every day, trying to be a small transparent person and observing Marshal Zhu's every move.

Of course, it is impossible for him to achieve rapid success in a short period of time and immediately master the same skills as Marshal Zhu.

Besides, Marshal Zhu usually commands battles in Russian. Although we are only engaging in combat now, they are all small-scale tests, so Marshal Zhu is not very busy.

Sometimes he would explain to Zheng Yi what he was doing, what orders he was giving, why he had to do it, etc., but Zheng Yi was a complete layman and really didn't understand it very well.

He mainly wanted to use this opportunity to learn Marshal Zhu's temperament and the way he spoke and did things.

After all, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation will inevitably have to fight against Japan sooner or later. Zheng Yi cannot command the army, but he is a leader after all.

A leader doesn't necessarily need to know everything. On the contrary, it's okay to know nothing, but he must have the ability to withstand pressure and the perseverance.

Zheng Yi knew very well that he had neither of these two things.

After all, he is still an ordinary person at heart.

He could only try his best to pretend that he had it. How could he do that? By learning from other leaders. Marshal Zhu was undoubtedly such a leader.

Moreover, he had to listen to the battle reports every day, just listening without talking. After dinner in the evening, when he had nothing to do, he would look at the photos taken by the camera company and analyze the Japanese army's combat methods and the Russian army's response methods.

He knew that if he studied for a short period of time, he would not be able to become a famous general, and it would be impossible for him to even become a mature general.

But as the boss, it is better to know as much as possible about the basics than to know nothing and be completely in the dark.

It is better to sharpen your sword before the battle.

About four days after the Russian and Japanese armies fought, Marshal Zhu suddenly received a battle report that made him laugh and cry: the Japanese air force flew to the Soviet mainland and bombed a Soviet airport.

Because they were caught off guard, the Soviet Air Force suffered heavy losses, with dozens of aircraft destroyed.

However, after seeing the battle report, Marshal Zhu was not angry but laughed instead.

But he actually took the initiative to translate the battle report into English and handed it to Zheng Yi, asking, "What do you think, Mr. Zheng?"

After receiving the battle report, Zheng Yi sighed repeatedly: "It's really incredible, but it's something the Japanese can do. Haha, I bet that the Japanese cabinet and the emperor must be unaware of this."

You know, although the Soviet Union and Japan have already fought each other, this is East Gobi Province and Outer Mongolia after all.

Even strictly speaking from a legal point of view, it seems that Nanjing has not yet recognized the independence of Outer Mongolia.

Although everyone has deployed more than an army group and is ready to fight a major battle.

But if you send planes directly to bomb the Soviet homeland, the nature of the situation will change.

What's the point of bombing dozens of extra planes? In such a large-scale battle, can dozens of planes play a decisive role?
Wasn't this simply helping his father build internal unity? Politically, he was doing the Soviet Union a great favor.

After all, for the Soviet Union, the interests of the Far East were not taken seriously at home, and most of the mediocre people did not have the strategic vision of a benevolent father. Sending so many troops to fight such a large-scale battle with Japan in Outer Mongolia was bound to lead to opposition at home.

Even if you don't say it, you know it in your heart.

Even if oil was discovered in the East Gobi Province, it was not that important to the Soviet Union. There was still plenty of oil in the Soviet Union itself, and it could never be fully mined.

Why go all the way to Outer Mongolia to extract oil?

Some people may even think that there is no point in fighting for a broken oil field. The Japanese are obviously a mad dog. Why bother to argue with them? Just give in.

The Soviet army was carrying out a purge, which was completely incomparable to Japan's militarist fanaticism.

Also in order to avoid fighting on two fronts, the father's suggestion is to slap Japan aside and defeat it while there is still time.

Naturally, there are also people who advocate the Far East. Even if the interests are slightly ceded, it is acceptable as long as it can be exchanged for Japan's promise not to attack the Soviet Union.

It is not surprising that every country has pacifists and compromisers.

But now the Japanese army actually took the initiative to bomb the Soviet homeland, which directly changed the nature of the war.

It was originally a colonial war among imperialist powers for resources on other countries' territories, but with Japan's intervention, the Soviet Union turned it into a self-defense counterattack.

Marshal Zhu: "The minds of Japanese soldiers are truly incomprehensible." What does Mr. Zheng think is the reason?
Zheng Yi: "This must be... the weakness of the Japanese people. Their culture of shame is too strong, and there are many factional conflicts within the country. After April 412, both the cabinet and the emperor lost control of the military."

"Plus, their resources are limited, and everyone is scrambling for them. The army and navy are scrambling, and even the army itself is scrambling. To seize these limited resources, they will take the initiative in provoking war, forcing the headquarters to follow their lead."

"However, in this situation, if the war went against them, or even just slightly, under the influence of the shame culture, it would be difficult for the generals who acted alone to explain themselves, and they would often be forced to commit seppuku."

"The Japanese army obviously suffered a loss in the battle with your country's air force, and the military probing did not gain any advantage.

So, I think, if the officers on the front lines still can't break the deadlock, while they might not yet be forced to commit seppuku, they'll still have to report it to their superiors and subordinates. Generally speaking, the Japanese army, faced with this situation, has only two options: one is to trick the lower-level soldiers into fighting for their lives, using banzai charges, human bombs, and Molotov cocktails. I'm afraid you, Marshal, will soon see such tactics.

"The other option is naturally to continue to expand the scale of the war and to cover up the incompetence of the current war by proactively provoking a larger war."

"As for whether or not we can win a bigger war, if we can't win, then we can just commit seppuku."

"For some Japanese soldiers, if they couldn't win, they would commit suicide by seppuku."

"This is actually the greatest weakness of Japanese militarism: its tactics are rigid, its strategy is completely lacking, and it only wants to win, not to lose. While seemingly advocating collectivism, it is actually full of factions and selfish, focused solely on avoiding defeat. It doesn't really care whether its allies win or lose, or even whether its own nation wins or loses."

"If I'm not mistaken, their Emperor should be furious right now."

Marshal Zhu nodded and said, "Mr. Zheng, you are indeed an expert in studying Japanese issues. With just a few words, you have enlightened me. I admire you deeply. Now I roughly understand how to fight this battle."

Showa men do have the ability to attract nuclear weapons like this.

Soon, Marshal Zhu changed his war strategy. He no longer sought to annihilate the Japanese army, but instead used provocation and insults as much as possible, fighting more small battles to harass the Japanese.
At the same time, they built defensive fortifications on the mountain positions as much as possible, and used loudspeakers to broadcast artillery fire, armored troops marching, fighting, and insults to the Japanese army in Japanese to the Japanese camp every day.

The Japanese army fell into the trap and completely ignored the disadvantage. Instead of trying to hold their positions first, they launched wave after wave of active attacks, but were beaten back by the Soviet army's powerful firepower, resulting in heavy casualties.

When the armored troops finally arrived after crossing the muddy Gobi Desert, and after confirming that the Soviet armored troops had not arrived yet and there was only less than one brigade, they did not even take a break to catch their breath, and launched an attack on the Soviet positions in less than half a day.

They don't even try.

After all, the infantry and the Soviet army have been fighting for so long, there must be no mines.

As a result, most of the Japanese tanks and armored vehicles that had just entered the battlefield mistakenly fell into the Soviet army's "wire trap" and were targeted and fired by the Soviet artillery that had been prepared in advance.

I watched with my own eyes as the so-called armored forces that the Japanese army was proud of turned into fireballs that were either smoking, burning, or exploding.

Zheng Yi asked in surprise: "What's going on?"

Marshal Zhu: "I ordered people to place metal wires in the path of the Japanese attack. To be more precise, they were piano strings."

"Strings? Is this thing of such good quality?"

Marshal Zhu: "Yes, the quality is very good. It's imported from Japan. It's called...what's the brand? Oh, right, Yamaha. Haha, after the war is over, I really want to buy a piano of this brand for my daughter. Their strings are of such good quality. I think the pianos must be of very good quality."

Zheng Yi: “…………”

The so-called wire trap is somewhat similar to the Guzheng Project on the second exhibition board, which is to nail extremely thin and tough wires to the ground.

Because the spikes are set low enough, they are difficult for infantry and vehicles to detect. However, because tanks use tracks instead of tires, when they pass over the traps, the strings will be caught in the tracks, making it impossible for the tank to move.

The artillery had already been specially adjusted to the angle and position of the shooting wire, so naturally every shot was accurate.

Japan's tanks are thin-skinned and large-filled. The good steel has been snatched away by the navy, and the side armor can be penetrated by heavy machine guns.

In just one round of charge, a Japanese tank brigade suffered heavy losses, with almost half of its troops killed or wounded.

As a last resort, the Japanese army had to retreat to their position. Seeing this, Marshal Zhu, with the attitude of giving it a try and no cost, used the same tactics to bury piano strings again on the Japanese's attack ramp.

What shocked Marshal Zhu was that the Japanese army actually adopted the same tactics the next day, and then fell into the same pit twice.

After just two days of fighting, an armored brigade was almost wiped out.

Marshal Zhu: "Japan is truly an amazing nation."

Zheng Yi: "Marshal Zhu, you are truly a master of military strategy."

Marshal Zhu: “…………”

I suddenly feel so guilty. What's going on?

Japan is such an amazing nation.

Zheng Yi had nothing to do with the war here. They had found the oil well a long time ago. Although the Soviet Union's oil refining technology was not the best in the world, its drilling technology was quite good and oil had already been produced.

In fact, all of Zheng Yi's goals for coming to the Soviet Union have been achieved. He just knows that there should be no problem with his safety following Marshal Zhu. Since Marshal Zhu is not going to drive him away, he will just watch and learn for a while longer.

During this period, the Japanese army's stubbornness and obstinacy certainly made him feel quite funny. However, although he had known for a long time that the Japanese army had such tactics as human bombs and Molotov cocktails, Zheng Yi was still shocked when he saw the real scene on the battlefield and the bloody photos taken by his cameraman.

From this perspective, he had to admit that the Japanese army was a very powerful opponent. The Type A Division was indeed worthy of being a Type A Division. It was obvious that its firepower was inferior to that of the Soviet army, its tactical arrangements were average, and it was even the active attacker.

They were at a disadvantage in every aspect, but relying on their insane energy, they actually inflicted heavy losses on the Soviet army. The mocking expression on Marshal Zhu's face became less and less every day, and soon, he became extremely serious.

The Soviet army's casualties did not seem to be much less than those of the Japanese army.

Zheng Yi was studying hard and thought he had nothing to do, but he didn't expect that just one month later, he received the latest battle report from Penang.

"What the hell? Not only did the Japanese send bombers to bomb Penang, but they even had battleships firing at Penang? They're going to fight me? Huh? The British and American troops are still there, heading straight for me?"

For a moment, even Zheng Yi, who thought he knew a lot about Japan, couldn't figure out what was going on.

"Let's go, it seems I have to go back, hehe."

After a brief panic, Zheng Yi was not annoyed at all, but laughed happily instead.

Regardless of whether the navy acted alone, it seems that the Japanese are really crazy.

(End of this chapter)