lerbook Chapter 287 24-Hour Blitzkrieg on Jinzhou
Chapter 287 24-Hour Blitzkrieg on Jinzhou
Rainwater poured down from the eaves of the Lugou Bridge command post, pounding on the muddy ground with a dull thud.
The atmosphere inside the room was a hundred times more oppressive than the gloomy sky!
In front of a huge military sand table depicting North China and Northeast China, several liaison officers of the Fengtian Army and generals of the Northwest Army stared intently at the northeast direction, their faces pale.
"Young Marshal! We really can't act impulsively anymore!"
Lieutenant Colonel Zhao Dehou, the adjutant of the Fengtian Army, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"Those are the Kwantung Army! Three whole elite Class A divisions!"
"Nearly 100,000 heavily armed Japanese soldiers are assembling in Korea and will be advancing overland into Northeast China within two days!"
Chen Zijun stood with his hands behind his back, his expression cold and stern, his gaze as sharp as a knife.
"So what?"
Chen Zijun's words were understated.
Zhao Dehou was so anxious he was jumping up and down!
"So what? Young Marshal! This is no joke!"
"President Chang of Jinling has sent an urgent telegram, instructing us to 'maintain restraint and prevent the conflict from escalating!'"
"Young Marshal Zhang has also spoken in Fengtian, demanding that the main force of the Northeast Army not act rashly and obey the mediation of the League of Nations and the Central Government!"
"Defense is the only way out now! Shouldn't we set up a defensive line and build fortifications on the spot?"
Hearing this, the brigade commander of the Northwest Army sighed as well.
"Young Marshal Chen, Lieutenant Colonel Zhao has a point."
"Those are the elite of Japan. You just finished fighting their flight squadron and Hirata Regiment. You must have suffered a lot of ammunition and physical exhaustion."
"If the Kwantung Army were to launch a full-scale attack at this time, the entire Northeast would likely fall. As long as we exercise restraint, Japan will not dare to launch a war rashly on the international stage. Even if they enter the Northeast, they will at most deploy along the Chinese Eastern Railway as before, only with a larger force!"
"If we take the initiative, I'm afraid..."
As Chen Zijun listened to their advice, a cold smile gradually crept onto his lips.
"Just a little more people?"
"restraint?"
"Submit to the League of Nations' mediation?"
Chen Zijun suddenly chuckled softly, the sound of which was unusually jarring in the cramped command post.
Everyone was stunned, looking at him with some confusion.
Suddenly!
Chen Zijun's face turned cold, and with lightning speed, he drew his German-made sword from his waist and planted it firmly in the center of the sand table, in the position of Jinzhou!
A muffled "thud"!
The saber pierced straight through the wooden sand table, the tip of the blade humming!
"The word 'defend to the death' doesn't exist in my dictionary!"
Chen Zijun's voice suddenly rose, like a thunderclap exploding in the room!
"The best defense is a good offense!"
"If the Japanese devils want to invade Northeast China, I'll make sure they don't get their way!"
"He Maofeng!"
Chen Zijun turned his head sharply and shouted.
He Maofeng, the commander of the independent motorized infantry division who had been holding back, immediately stepped forward and snapped to attention!
"Your humble servant is here!"
"Can the independent motorized infantry division move now?"
Chen Zijun stared at him, his eyes flashing with a fierce fighting spirit.
"Young Marshal, rest assured! Even without railway transportation, the independent motorized infantry division is its own armored vehicle, its own fighting vehicle, and guarantees to complete all orders from headquarters!"
"The entire division is ready to attack at any time!"
He Maofeng straightened his chest and answered loudly.
Zhao Dehou was terrified and rushed forward to stop him.
"Young Marshal Chen! Have you gone mad?!"
"Where are you sending this independent motorized infantry division? That's your lifeline!"
"Where to?"
Chen Zijun shoved him away and said coldly:
"Let's go to Jinzhou!"
"Go and take over the defense of Jinzhou!"
"If Zhang Jialiang dares to be a coward and not fight the Japanese, then I'll take his place!"
"If the Fengtian Army dares to stop us, we'll crush them all!"
"If his Kwantung Army really dares to enter Northeast China, I'll cut off their rear and annihilate them all on this black soil of Northeast China!"
Zhao Dehou was completely dumbfounded.
He even stuttered when he spoke:
"You...you want to forcibly seize Jinzhou?!"
"That's the last gateway to Northeast China, its strategic position is extremely important! Young Marshal Zhang will never agree to that!"
Chen Zijun snorted coldly, his eyes full of disdain.
"He won't agree? If that little sixth son of his really makes a choice that disappoints the whole country, I wouldn't mind using an even more disappointing method to take over the entire Northeast!"
"Tell the brothers below, in this battle, I'll show the Japanese devils what a real blitzkrieg is!"
"He Maofeng, take your independent motorized infantry division, and I'll also provide you with the Second Armored Division. Set off tonight!"
"Before nightfall tomorrow, before his Kwantung Army is expected to enter Northeast China, I want to see the Chen family army's black flag on the walls of Jinzhou!"
"Yes, sir! Mission accomplished!"
He Maofeng was filled with patriotic fervor. He gave a military salute, turned around, and strode out of the command post.
Night falls.
The torrential rain on the North China Plain gradually subsided. Although the roads remained muddy, the railway was bustling with activity.
In the encampments of the Independent Motorized Infantry Division and the Second Armored Division, one after another, massive steel behemoths started up.
The German-made Tiger heavy tank's Maybach engine, boasting a whopping 700 horsepower, roared wildly in the darkness, spewing billowing black smoke from its exhaust pipe.
Panzer IV medium tanks, half-track armored personnel carriers, and truck-towed heavy artillery formed an endless steel dragon.
"Check the radio station!"
"All tanks, activate your night marching lights!"
"Board quickly, the train waits for no one, full speed ahead!"
He Maofeng sat in his command vehicle, holding a walkie-talkie, and loudly issued orders.
He stared at the endless darkness ahead, his eyes filled with fanaticism.
An old-fashioned steam train, billowing white smoke, raced along the muddy road!
"Commander, at this rate, we can leave Shanhaiguan at four in the morning and arrive in Jinzhou around four o'clock tomorrow afternoon."
The staff officer next to him looked at the map and reported excitedly.
"Not fast enough! Drive faster!"
He Maofeng gritted his teeth and shouted in a deep voice:
"The Japanese have three Class A divisions on their way! We must capture the key locations faster than they do!"
"Tell the brothers not to be afraid of getting tired! Tell the people driving the train that Marshal Chen has plenty of money to reward them, as long as they go fast enough!"
"yes!"
A long torrent of steel tore a path through the darkness.
The vibrations on the railway tracks caused the surrounding ground to tremble, even leading villagers fleeing the war along the route to believe that an earth dragon had risen from the ground, causing them to kneel down in prayer.
This is a marching speed and steel power that no army in this era could imagine!
At dawn.
In the darkest hour before dawn, the steel fortress of Shanhaiguan, standing atop the pass, appears and disappears in the morning mist.
Inside the Fengtian Army garrison camp at Shanhaiguan, a sentry was leaning against the wooden fence, yawning listlessly.
Because of the order of non-resistance from Beiping, and because this place was far away from both Fengtian and Korea, the soldiers here had no sense of tension about the upcoming battle.
Even the warnings were treated perfunctorily.
Suddenly!
The sentry felt the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly.
"Huh? What's that sound?"
The sentry rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked towards the outside of the pass with some confusion.
"Boom!"
The sound grew louder and more muffled, like muffled thunder rolling overhead!
Immediately afterwards, even the water cups on the barracks table began to shake violently, splashing water everywhere!
"Enemy attack! Is it an earthquake?!"
"No! Look over there!"
Someone shouted in terror.
The morning mist was violently torn apart!
Trains carrying enormous vehicles clad in dark green camouflage and gleaming with a cold metallic sheen burst forth from the thick fog like primordial beasts!
The massive cannon barrels and menacing armor instantly took away the breath of the defenders!
"Tanks! It's tanks!"
"My God! How can there be so many tanks?!"
The brigade commander of the Fengtian Army garrison at Shanhaiguan was startled awake from his sleep and ran out without even putting on his shoes properly.
When he saw that the endless trains outside the pass were full of tanks, he was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, his face as pale as paper!
"Where...where did this army come from?!"
"Have the Japanese invaded?!"
Before he could react, a Tiger tank on the lead train had already slowly turned its massive 88mm main gun!
The dark muzzle of the cannon was locked onto the sentry tower at the Shanhaiguan Railway Station!
"boom!"
A deafening roar!
Flames and smoke rose into the air!
The sturdy watchtower, several meters high, was instantly shattered into pieces by the violent bombardment of an 88mm armor-piercing round, turning into scattered wood and brick fragments!
"Boom boom boom!"
Immediately afterwards, several tanks opened fire at the same time, directly blasting several light and heavy machine gun positions on the Shanhaiguan city wall into ruins!
"No firing! No one is allowed to fire!"
The brigade commander of the Fengtian Army shouted hysterically:
"They're not Japanese devils! They're flying the flag of the Chen Family Army!"
"It's soldiers in black! It's Chen Zijun's team!"
Before the words were even finished, the train, like a torrent of steel, had already smashed through all the barriers on the railway with unstoppable force and sped straight through!
One of the Tiger tanks paused briefly before driving off the train. The massive vehicle stopped right in front of the Fengtian Army brigade commander, its tracks even splashing mud all over him.
He Maofeng opened the hatch, stood on the tank, and coldly looked down at him.
"Brothers at Shanhaiguan, Marshal Chen has given orders!"
"Effective immediately, the Chen Family Army's Independent Motorized Infantry Division and the Second Armored Division will take over all defenses along the line from Jinzhou to Shanhaiguan! My unit needs to proceed to Jinzhou immediately; you await the arrival of subsequent troops!"
"Any resistance will be considered treason and the perpetrators will be eliminated on the spot!"
Looking at the 88mm cannon barrel still emitting blue smoke, the brigade commander of Fengtian Army swallowed hard, his legs went weak, and he knelt down on the ground.
"We will not resist... we will never resist..."
As the sun's heat began to subside, the torrent of steel had reached Jinzhou on the Northeast Plain.
On the thick city wall of Jinzhou, the black tiger banner with gold patterns of Chen Family Army fluttered in the wind.
Chen Zijun, who had just arrived, stood at the highest point of the city wall, his hand on the sword at his waist, looking down at the vast northeastern plains beyond the pass.
That boundless black land is about to be swept by an unprecedented storm of bloodshed!
"Young Marshal!"
A series of hurried footsteps approached.
He Maofeng, covered in dust, strode up the city wall and snapped to attention in salute.
"The independent motorized infantry division and the 2nd armored division have taken full control of the defense of Jinzhou! All key passes and passes have been redeployed!"
"The Fengtian Army's Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou garrison brigades have been completely disarmed and are undergoing reorganization!"
Chen Zijun nodded slightly, his gaze still fixed on the distance.
"Well done. Set up the heavy artillery and be ready for any enemy counterattack."
"yes!"
Just then, the telegraph operator in the command post, clutching a newly translated telegram, ran frantically up the city wall with an extremely flustered expression!
"Young Marshal! Urgent coded telegram from Shanghai!"
"An extremely urgent telegram from Director Moranchine of the Military Intelligence Bureau!"
Chen Zijun frowned slightly and turned around to take the telegram.
With just one glance, his pupils contracted sharply, and a violent killing intent flashed in his eyes!
The telegram contained only a few lines of startling handwriting:
"Young Marshal, something's happened! A large foreign fleet has suddenly appeared outside the Huangpu River!"
"Twelve heavy cruisers flying the British flag have forcibly anchored at the mouth of the Wusong River! The foreign powers, under the pretext of protecting their citizens, have blockaded the Huangpu River estuary!"
"The other side claimed that if Chen's army did not immediately withdraw from Northeast and North China, they would directly shell all military targets in Shanghai!"
"The great powers are about to cut off our rear!"
On the city wall, the wind howled, making the telegram paper crackle.
Chen Zijun gripped the telegram tightly, sneering repeatedly.
"Great, that's wonderful!"
"With the Kwantung Army in front and the foreign powers behind, these bandits have certainly played their cards right!"
"Since you want to play big, then I'll play along to the end!"