Chapter 50 The Fifth Fleet

Fifth Fleet Commander, Kouichi Shiozawa, couldn't believe the news either. If it were true, this single battle had wiped out seventy percent of the two hundred-plus aircraft under his command.

Although Commander Kanro Kosho would bear the responsibility, the strength of his fleet had been drastically reduced.

He ordered, "Dispatch a reconnaissance plane immediately to the skies over Conghua, to the battlefield, to investigate. At the same time, order all aircraft from the First, Second, and Fourteenth Air Squadrons still airborne to return to base."

Commander Shiozawa was now somewhat resentful of his pilots. Whether they completed their mission or not, they should have returned sooner. Didn't they know their commander was worried about them?

In his heart, he still held a sliver of hope for his air squadrons. What if some of the planes had simply gotten lost?

Compared to the staff officers at the 21st Army Headquarters, Lieutenant General Toshio Miyake, commander of the 104th Division, was the first to accept reality.

This was partly because the downed aircraft weren't his men. His primary concern now was the Takeuchi Takuma Battalion, which had established a defensive position.

The most important thing for him to do was figure out how to retrieve the remaining five hundred or so Japanese soldiers from that battalion.

He had already realized that the Chinese army must have deployed a significant force in the area where the Takeuchi Takuma Battalion was ambushed.

His initial order to the 137th Infantry Regiment to provide assistance wasn't enough. Even with the tank regiment and mountain artillery unit that Commander Kanro Kosho had dispatched, the strength was still insufficient.

Lieutenant General Miyake requested of Commander Kanro Kosho, "The 104th Infantry Division will concentrate all its forces in Conghua and engage the main force of the Chinese army in a decisive battle."

Annihilating the main force of the Chinese army had always been the Japanese high command's greatest desire. Chiang Kai-shek constantly sought to eliminate the Japanese army's active forces, and likewise, the Japanese army sought a decisive battle with the main force of the Chinese army, hoping to crush the elite core of the Chinese military.

Today, in the Conghua and Fogang regions of Guangzhou, such an opportunity had presented itself. A force capable of shooting down over a hundred aircraft must be the elite of the elite, perhaps the Chinese army had transported its elite forces from Wuhan via the railway.

Commander Kanro Kosho, still seething with anger, immediately approved the 104th Division's request. Furthermore, he dispatched two independent machine gun companies and an additional mortar battalion.

With this, the Japanese 21st Army had deployed a total of one infantry division, one mountain artillery battalion, one tank regiment, two mortar battalions, and two independent machine gun companies to strike the Special Operations Brigade between Conghua and Fogang.

This configuration completely armed the 104th Infantry Division to the teeth. The 137th Infantry Regiment, which had already set out, was urgently recalled. Lieutenant General Miyake wanted the infantry regiment to wait for the arrival of the tank regiment before taking action together.

He feared that the force that had shot down over a hundred aircraft was too strong and would annihilate the infantry regiment he sent. If that happened, he would truly be fighting an incremental battle.

The 21st Army of the Japanese forces was now in full swing.

If the Special Operations Brigade hadn't decimated the Japanese aircraft so thoroughly today, Lieutenant General Miyake wouldn't have been so cautious. However, he was now somewhat afraid and had to be careful.

Lin Fan, of course, wasn't aware of the Japanese 21st Army's reaction, nor were the commanders in the Fourth War Area. However, when they received another battle report from He Deyuan, they simply couldn't believe it: the Special Operations Brigade had shot down more than 170 Japanese aircraft.

If Deputy Chief of Staff He Deyuan were standing before him, Commander Yu Hanmou would have grabbed him by the collar and asked, "Do you never look at your drafts when you're exaggerating?"

Commander Yu, his face ashen, showed the telegram to everyone in the headquarters, saying with disappointed exasperation, "I, Yu Hanmou, have been generous to everyone these past few years. But this He Deyuan, after only half a day with the Special Operations Brigade, has been bought off by them and dares to send back such nonsensical battle reports."

One staff officer cautiously suggested, "Commander! If Deputy Chief of Staff He is sending such an unreasonable telegram, could it be against his will?"

"Against his will" was the right phrase! Commander Yu Hanmou immediately changed his mind: "The Special Operations Brigade must have wanted him to send some victorious battle reports, and out of desperation, Deputy Chief of Staff He had no choice but to send back such an utterly absurd report."

Thinking this way, Yu Hanmou felt much better. He had been very good to his officers over the years. The Fourth War Area had been mining tungsten and exporting it, making a great deal of money. Yu Hanmou hadn't kept all the funds for himself but had distributed bonuses to his officers according to their rank.

All of his regimental-level officers in Guangzhou had small Western-style houses, cars, and concubines, and supporting them required money, a great deal of money. This money came from the bonuses that Yu Hanmou distributed to his officers.

However, two months ago, he had discovered that his secretary and the logistics officer in charge of construction had been turned by the Japanese, who had given them all the defense maps and military deployment charts of Guangzhou.

This was why his forces hadn't been able to organize any decent defensive operations when the Japanese attacked.

The Japanese had long known all the fortifications of the Fourth War Area in Guangzhou, and they were also fully aware that the Fourth War Area only had 80,000 troops left.

He had just assumed that He Deyuan had betrayed him again and run off with the Special Operations Brigade, which was why he was so angry. Now that he had found a reason, he wasn't as furious.

Now, he was waiting for his chief of staff to go and see what the actual situation was on the ground. However, he remembered that the Special Operations Brigade had said they didn't want military merit, only pork.

Even if they exaggerated their achievements, how much pork could he provide them? One catty of meat per person per day was already a lot; they couldn't eat any more than that!

He didn't understand! He really didn't understand!

While the people at the Fourth War Area Headquarters couldn't understand the real situation on the battlefield, Liu Laopao understood it very well: except for the 10th Company, which had been used to intercept the fleeing Takeuchi Takuma Battalion, his infantry regiment's remaining nine companies were still lurking behind the mountains, patiently waiting for the arrival of the Japanese reinforcements.

Regimental Commander Shangguan Zhiwen had only arranged for the 10th Company to clean up the battlefield at this time. The entire 15th Regiment had already begun to move towards Pingtou Mountain, but they were also withdrawing quietly from behind, so as not to alarm the Takeuchi Takuma Battalion.

At the same time, He Deyuan had also sent people to Fogang Town to find the town head, asking him to organize a team of thousands of laborers to help clean up the battlefield.

According to Lin Fan's request: all the wreckage of the crashed enemy planes that could be found should be dragged back as much as possible. The remaining frames after the fires were all metal, and these metals were excellent raw materials that could be reprocessed.

As for the Japanese soldiers' steel helmets, leather shoes, clothes, belts, and ammunition belts, the Special Operations Brigade never made a choice: they wanted everything!

Only the Japanese corpses were unwanted; everything else that could be taken off was to be recycled. That was the right thing to do.

Lin Fan also moved with the 15th Regiment, but while the 15th Regiment was going to Pingtou Mountain to lie in wait, Lin Fan was going to Elephant Mountain. Now, the Special Operations Brigade's ambush line was shorter than before.

Lin Fan also learned from the previous lesson and placed the anti-aircraft guns in the middle of the ambush line, so as to protect the entire defense line from being bombed by Japanese planes to the greatest extent.

In reality, Lin Fan was indeed overthinking it this time: the Special Operations Brigade had only shot down more than 170 Japanese planes; no matter what, the Japanese would not dare to continue sending planes to their deaths.

Initially, the Japanese considered the news of the destruction of twelve tanks to be a huge loss, but now that they had lost more than a hundred aircraft at once, the loss of twelve tanks was completely insignificant.

From Battalion Commander Takeuchi Takuma to Lieutenant General Miyake Toshio, and then to Commander Kanro Kosho, none of the Japanese soldiers mentioned this matter.

However, Ren Ce, the 10th Company Commander of the 15th Regiment of the Special Operations Brigade, was at this time watching these tanks that were no longer smoking, and was directing a platoon of soldiers to dismantle them. Although the Japanese tanks had thin armor, a tank was a tank, and it still weighed about ten tons.

If these tanks were not dismantled, it would not be easy to drag them to the rear, and behind these tanks, there were dozens of cars that Regiment Commander Shangguan had intentionally left behind.

At this time, the Second Platoon Commander was trying out these cars one by one to see how many of them were still in good condition and could be driven away directly.

Such cars could be used to put the guns and ammunition that had just been seized on the battlefield. Some of the cars were driven to the front to load the parts dismantled from the tanks, and the parts were taken back to Fogang when they returned.

Jiang Wei said with a smile: "Brigade Commander is really too lucky, we just arrived in Guangzhou, and we have seized so many cars at once, if we sell them, they can be worth at least hundreds of thousands of silver dollars."

Wu Yong said with a smile: "It's a pity about those planes in the sky, if we could seize them, just over a hundred planes would be worth hundreds of millions of silver dollars."

"What a pity! What a pity!" They smiled at each other, and the whole platoon of soldiers were smiling. They had no reason not to be happy. Today was the first battle since arriving in Guangzhou, and with the current results, they could already report to the folks back home.

Half of them were from Guangdong, and it was the first time they had fought against the Japanese in their hometown. Having shot down so many Japanese planes at once, they could go home with their heads held high!

Company Commander Ren was still shouting: "Drag the planes down from the hillside, Wang Youxing, be careful, there are people below, don't throw them around, don't hit people."

Although he was scolding people, he could not hide his excited tone no matter what. All the soldiers in the whole company were beaming with joy. They had cleaned up the weapons discarded by the Japanese, and now they had begun to take off their leather shoes.

Second Platoon Commander Zhao Tianci led the soldiers to check the cars one by one, first ordering the soldiers to push all the cars to the side of the road, close to the curb, leaving half a road open.

Then, the cars that had been inspected and were in good condition to be driven away immediately were driven to the front to load the tank wreckage, and the cars that could not be driven for the time being were left for later.

As they continued to inspect in this way, there were fifty-four cars that could be driven away immediately, and five cars that had been blown up and could not be repaired at all, and soldiers were arranged to dismantle these five cars.

Some of the other twenty-one cars had their tires blown out by bullets, so the blown tires were removed and waited for the inspection results of the other vehicles.

When the car covers were opened, four of the cars had small holes in their engines from bullets, so the tires of these cars were removed first, and replaced with the tires of the cars that were missing tires, and the usable parts were removed and replaced with the parts of the cars that had been damaged.

After such a busy work, eight more cars were repaired, and now sixty-two cars could be used, and there were still thirteen cars with frames, but they could not be repaired on the battlefield.

They needed to be dragged back and repaired slowly, and the repaired car compartments were loaded with the seized materials, and the Japanese corpses were temporarily piled up there in white.

According to Lin Fan's opinion, just dig a big pit and bury them. He Deyuan finally spoke this time: "Brigade Commander Lin! This is not the way our nation of etiquette should do things. Guangzhou is an international metropolis.

Not only the Japanese, but also the foreigners are watching, these Japanese soldiers are all naked, which is really unsightly. We can wrap them in a foot of white cloth and let them send Japanese soldiers to drag them back.

This will not only fulfill our reputation, but also let them know that we are not to be trifled with, and those who dare to invade us can only come alive and return dead."

Lin Fan said with a smile: "We don't have the money to buy shrouds for the Japanese." This was already his agreement.

He Deyuan said with a smile: "The brigade commander doesn't need to worry about this matter, I'll have a friend contact the Japanese and ask them to pay for it, and also pay for the laborers, and then have the laborers scrub the Japanese corpses a little bit, and the price that can be sold will be even higher."

When he first spoke, Lin Fan thought that Deputy Chief of Staff He was just a bleeding-heart liberal, wholeheartedly thinking of the Japanese.

Only the last sentence revealed his true nature. Deputy Chief of Staff He may not be suitable as a staff officer, but he would be perfect as a businessman.

Lin Fan was happy: "Chief of Staff He! What do you think we can sell for money among the weapons and equipment we seized today?"

Deputy Chief of Staff He said proudly: "With money in my heart, all the spoils can be exchanged for money."

Lin Fan quickly said: "Chief of Staff He! How can we exchange the equipment we seized for money, remind me, if it doesn't affect us from fighting the Japanese, and doesn't affect the reputation of the Special Operations Brigade, we can sell it.

Feel free to sell it, I'll give you ten percent commission."

Deputy Chief of Staff He Deyuan quickly said: "Brigade Commander Lin is being too polite, don't mention the commission. You can fight the Japanese so hard. It's also revenge for us useless soldiers.

As long as you need me, I will do my best. Don't mention money or anything. To be honest, Commander Yu has been very good to us these years, when it comes to money, we are at least the richest troops among the warlords of the National Army.

The equipment is also top-notch, but what happened? Everyone's bodies were softened by money, and they could no longer stand up straight, which is why the fighting has been so bad these days.

Now, we will support any troops that can fight the Japanese."

Listening to what he said, Lin Fan could see that Deputy Chief of Staff He was a little excited, and he was speaking a little fast, and he believed that he was sincere.

Of course, Lin Fan could only accept such good intentions, and thanked Deputy Chief of Staff He with a smile, and told him to let go and do the business well.

Lin Fan was still on the way with the troops when he received a report from the reconnaissance platoon: "Another enemy plane is flying towards the battlefield."

The enemy's situation is the order: the anti-aircraft guns that were traveling with Lin Fan immediately took action, changing from marching state to firing state.

Lin Fan and the others were not in a very good position right now, as they were walking at the foot of the mountain. This limited their vision, but fortunately, the Second Regiment on the top of the mountain could observe on their behalf.

The infantry of the 15th Regiment continued to advance, leaving only a company here to guard Brigade Commander Lin Fan and the five anti-aircraft guns.

Liu Lao quickly discovered that the Japanese plane had appeared in his field of vision: "The Japanese plane has appeared, there is only one plane, flying very high, flying from the southeast, flying towards Dongling Ridge."

Liu Laopao did not report the distance, but it was already very good that he could report the azimuth.

Lin Fan pointed the gun barrel towards the southeast and waited patiently. Soon an enemy plane appeared in his field of vision.

Pilot Yushō Fujiwara had not followed the entire squadron to Conghua just now, but was flying around the entire fleet. His mission was to reconnoiter the sea surface within a hundred miles of the fleet to see if there were any fleets that might be hostile to the Fifth Fleet.

This time, he was temporarily sent to see what was happening in Conghua. He was not yet aware of what had happened to the three air squadrons of the Fifth Fleet.

He still thought that this was just an ordinary reconnaissance mission, and the ignorant Fujiwara Yushō was flying a reconnaissance plane and saw the busy 10th Company of the 15th Regiment on the highway from a distance.

A long string of cars on the highway, and soldiers busily working beside the cars, was so obvious. From a distance, Fujiwara Yushō thought they were his own people.

When he flew closer, he realized that his own people were trapped on a section of the highway, and there were Chinese soldiers guarding the hillside.

This situation completely subverted his understanding, and then he discovered that the soldiers busily working around the cars not far away were also Chinese soldiers.

This made him a little angry. Although he also saw some wreckage of the wings on the hillside, this did not affect his desire to fire a few shots at the Chinese soldiers on the hillside to vent the anger in his heart.

The Japanese soldiers of the Takeuchi Takuma Battalion were still standing up on the ground at the risk of their lives and shouting, wanting the reckless Japanese pilot to leave quickly.

The Takeuchi Takuma Infantry Battalion now understood: Japanese planes are forbidden to enter this land!