Courtyard House: Home Alone

Lin Yifan raised an eyebrow after hearing this and nodded, saying, "This is nothing. You should immediately have someone notify the city gate. When he returns at dawn, he will walk right into our trap, and we can take him down in one fell swoop. You should also find a place to rest and conserve your energy. Once Li Yunlong's main force lands, we will clear the area completely."

Relieved after hearing this, Shen Jingbo responded, turned around, and quietly closed the door behind her.

Lin Yifan leaned back on the sofa, closing his eyes to rest. He would occasionally glance at the pocket watch he was holding. The sky gradually brightened, and Chinese people who had gotten up early to clean the streets began to move about.

To their surprise, the city was unusually quiet today. None of the patrol teams that used to roam the city were there. Before long, they were taken away by people who also spoke Chinese and were taken to the Japanese army camp.

This was something Lin Yifan had instructed him to do yesterday: to protect the few remaining Chinese people in the city. Of course, there were also people specifically assigned to that shantytown to bring all the Chinese people there out.

The first gunshot came from the dock. It was from the island nation's dockworkers who were going to work that morning. When they arrived at the dock's perimeter, they found it had been sealed off.

They tried to break in, but two of them were shot down by the guards. The rest scattered and ran to inform the Japanese civilians in the city who were still in shock.

The Japanese expatriates quickly arrived at the police station and military police station, only to find that the island nation's police and military police had disappeared, replaced by Chinese people dressed in various colors and carrying all kinds of firearms.

This caused a complete uproar among the Japanese expatriates. Some of the foreign firms also had telegraph machines, and they immediately contacted the Japanese in other northeastern cities. Before long, the news spread throughout the major cities of Northeast China, and of course, it also reached the headquarters of the Kwantung Army.

The Kwantung Army has now been upgraded to the Kwantung General Army. Upon receiving the news, Commander-in-Chief Yamada Otozo immediately ordered reconnaissance planes from Fengtian Airport to take off immediately and ascertain the situation in Lushun as quickly as possible.

He also ordered nearby garrison troops to encircle and search Lushun. Since troops were transferred from the Kwantung Army to reinforce the Pacific theater, the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army had grown stronger and larger with each battle.

At the same time, the garrison detachment near Lushun was immediately dispatched to Lushun to investigate the situation and regain control of the port.

At this time, Yamada Otozo thought that it was just a small group of anti-Japanese guerrillas who had accidentally occupied Lushun. He had no idea that the enemy had completely controlled the entire city and was just waiting for his troops to run into the encirclement.

At the same time, he did not expect that just as he issued the order to send out reconnaissance planes, a group of planes that cut in from the south at extremely low altitudes had already flown over Fengtian Airport. Before the air defense forces and pilots on the airport could react, a rain of aerial bombs fell.

The airport runway, anti-aircraft machine gun positions, anti-aircraft artillery positions, pilots' quarters, and airport control tower were instantly turned into a sea of ​​fire. Alongside the airport runway, various types of fighter jets, bombers, and reconnaissance planes, which were parked neatly, were successively blown up by the P-51's machine guns.

In less than fifteen minutes, Fengtian Airport was transformed into a true hell, while the attacking aircraft gracefully made a sharp turn and sped away.

Meanwhile, Shanhaiguan was also undergoing a test of blood and fire. When the shells of the 150mm howitzers blasted open the gates and the Type 44 tanks rushed into the city, the Japanese soldiers guarding the city walls and fortifications realized that their officers had not appeared and that there was no movement from the artillery positions behind them.

His own Type 92 heavy armor and heavy mortars were utterly ineffective against these steel monsters. His supposedly exceptionally sturdy reinforced concrete bunker was like clay before the enemy's 100mm rifled cannons.

It was blown open in one blast, and the Japanese soldiers hiding inside were not even left with intact bones.

Tanks led the way, and infantry followed closely behind, and in less than half a day, Shanhaiguan was completely captured.

Kong Jie left a portion of his men to take over the city's defenses, and led twenty main force regiments, including two tank regiments, two mechanized infantry regiments, and two heavy artillery regiments, totaling more than 60,000 men, on a non-stop journey to Fengtian.

When news of the attacks at Fengtian Airport and Shanhaiguan reached Xinjing, Yamada Otozo realized that this was not a harassment attack by the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Forces, but a full-scale counter-offensive by the Chinese.

Their objective was self-evident: to reclaim Northeast China and drive the Imperial Army out of China. This long-planned counter-offensive, from Shanhaiguan to Lushun, suddenly tore through the defenses laid by the Kwantung Army, catching them completely off guard.

He immediately telegraphed the situation in Northeast China to the headquarters back home, hoping for tactical guidance. At the same time, he ordered the gathering of scattered garrison troops, concentrating all available forces towards Fengtian, preparing to hold off the enemy's advance and await reinforcements from the mainland.

Meanwhile, Li Yunlong, who was floating on the sea, was cursing. He cursed the size of the Bohai Sea and the slowness of the cargo ships. He had received Lin Yifan's telegram that he had taken over the Lushun dock five or six hours ago. He had just asked the captain, who said it would take another ten hours to reach Lushun.

This made Li Yunlong forget even his seasickness; he was so engrossed in jumping up and down and cursing. Zhang Dabiao, standing next to him, was laughing while holding his gun when Li Yunlong slapped him on the back of the head: "What are you laughing at! Hurry up and keep an eye on the sea situation. Once we're ashore, your regiment will be the first to disembark and use T-26s and T-34s to clean up Lushun. If you don't clean it up properly, I'll hold you accountable!"

Zhang Dabiao rubbed his head and chuckled to himself. He quickly ran to the bow of the boat to look out. The wind stung his face, but he didn't dare utter a single word of dissent.

Wei Dayong, standing nearby, leaned closer to Li Yunlong and said, "Commander, this Lin brother is too brave! With just a few men, he took Lushun? I've heard from the older generation that when the Japanese took it from the Russians, they mobilized over 100,000 men and more than 60,000 died."

Li Yunlong glanced at Wei Dayong sideways: "Don't you know how brave he is? How old was he when he saved you and me? Only seven years old, right? As for you... Hmph! Back then, I didn't manage to fool... no, I didn't manage to recruit him, otherwise you and the monk wouldn't have had a chance."

"Go away! Go away! Go away! And don't get in my way. I asked you to lead the troops, but you wouldn't go. You just have to come up in front of me. Seeing you makes me angry." Wei Dayong chuckled twice, scratching his bald head. He wasn't annoyed. He turned around and went to the bow of the boat to join Zhang Dabiao in keeping watch.

Li Yunlong snorted as he watched his retreating figure, but his hand unconsciously tightened around the pistol at his waist. His deeply lined face was filled with barely suppressed eagerness. If they could get their hands on Lushun Port, it would be like a nail driven into the heart of the Kwantung Army.

Not only could it support the main force's landing, but it could also block the Japanese's escape route by sea. Li Yunlong didn't want to be slow to act on such a large piece of meat and end up not getting much profit.

Meanwhile, in Lushun, Lin Yifan also received news of the bombing of Fengtian Airport. He stood up, walked to the window, opened it, smelled the sea breeze coming from outside the city, and a smile appeared on his lips.

The operation over there has already begun. All that's left is to wait for Li Yunlong's main force to land, and then it will be time to settle accounts with the Kwantung Army.