Chapter 154 The Plan Surfaces to the Light

Stop the pursuit! Set up defensive positions right where you are, quickly!

Seeing that they had already pursued the enemy for more than three miles, with only a scattering of minor Japanese stragglers remaining ahead of them, Wang Yachuan immediately halted the soldiers who were eager to press the attack and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Commander, why are we stopping? There are only this many Japs left! If we push just a little further, we can wipe them out entirely. Who knows, we might even ride the momentum straight into the Japanese lair and hack those old bastards to death one by one!"

A company commander hurried over upon hearing Wang Yachuan's order, asking with a puzzled expression.

"With just the few of us, you want to charge straight into the Japs' lair? Are you out of your damn mind, or just tired of living?! If we chase them over there with this many men, we wouldn't even be enough to fill a gap in their teeth!"

Hearing this, Wang Yachuan slapped the company commander right across the helmet, then said impatiently, "Stop flapping your gums! When I tell you to stop, you stop. This is the brigade commander's direct order! Get the brothers moving to construct defensive positions immediately. If the Japs push us back, I'll execute you myself!"

"Hehe, of course not! The territory that has fallen into our hands is not going to be lost so easily!"

Taking the blow without a word of complaint, the company commander wasn't upset in the least. Hearing that it was an order from the brigade commander, he stopped asking questions and scurried off with a cheerful grin to urge the soldiers to dig in.

Watching the men bustling enthusiastically to build improvised defensive positions, Wang Yachuan rubbed the back of his head and said with a grin of anticipation, "Hehe, you little Japanese bastards, once our artillery gets here, you're going to be in for a real treat this time!"

Thinking of the plan the brigade commander had shared with him earlier, Wang Yachuan couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. If this operation truly succeeded, it was entirely possible that the Japanese 9th Division would lose all capacity to continue its assault on Dingyuan!

Before that could happen, however, he had to hold this position. Only by successfully defending it could they talk about anything else.

...

"Do you see that wooden antenna on the hillside, two miles away?" Chen Qingzhi asked the officer standing beside him.

"Yes, I see it!" The officer raised his binoculars, looked in the direction Chen Qingzhi indicated, and indeed spotted two crude antennas constructed from timber.

"Can your artillery reach it?"

Hearing this, the soldier immediately extended his thumb to measure the distance in his sight, then replied, "About thirteen hundred meters from our current position. At this range, most of the mortars in our battalion can reach it!"

"Good! Look closely, there is a wooden structure right next to the antenna. That is most likely the Japanese command post. I want you to blow it to pieces shortly. Are you confident?"

"Yes!" The officer replied with a grin, a fierce look in his eyes. "Even though our battalion only has light mortars, and leaving aside longer ranges, at such close quarters we can rake the place back and forth until nothing is left. If that spot truly is the Japanese command post, we will definitely flatten it! I guarantee not a single one of those Japanese bastards will get away!"

"Good! Quickly have your artillery battalion set up their firing position. Let me know the moment it's ready!" Chen Qingzhi said, thoroughly satisfied with the officer's resolute reply.

"Understood!"

Destroying the Japanese command post—that was the core of Chen Qingzhi's plan!

During his earlier reconnaissance, Chen Qingzhi had discovered that the Japanese command post was located only about five miles away. At that distance, firing from within the city walls with heavy artillery was out of the question, as it was far beyond their maximum range.

Relocating the heavy guns would require setting up entirely new artillery positions, and given their immense weight, transporting them would be extremely cumbersome and time-consuming. Fearing that any delay would bring unpredictable changes, Chen Qingzhi had directly brought up the light mortar battalion stationed outside the walls of Dingyuan.

He had ordered his troops to launch a counter-charge of three miles precisely to buy time for the artillery!

As long as the artillery battalion could be put into position, they would undoubtedly obliterate the Japanese command post!

And once the command post was eradicated, along with the high command of the 9th Division inside it, the division would be left like a dragon without a head. The intensity of their offensive against Dingyuan would plummet dramatically.

At that moment, Chen Qingzhi would lead a regiment to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese rear, and the 9th Division would completely lack the capacity to mount a pursuit!

This was Chen Qingzhi's complete master plan!

While the artillery battalion was rapidly constructing its defensive positions, however, the atmosphere inside the Japanese command post was filled with puzzlement.

Inside the Headquarters of the Japanese 9th Division:

Kiji Ryosuke held his binoculars, watching the soldiers of the 3rd Regiment frantically building defensive positions, and asked with a puzzled frown, "What on earth are our opponents trying to achieve? Do they actually think they can launch a counter-charge with such a meager force and hold this position? And if they do hold it, what is their ultimate objective?"

Kiji Ryosuke found himself unable to fathom the enemy's intentions. This inability to read the situation made him feel deeply uneasy. For reasons he couldn't explain, a faint sense of foreboding lingered in his mind.

Even so, he didn't take it too seriously.

In his view, the enemy lacked the capability to pose any genuine threat to him.

At that moment, Nakagawa Hiroshi and the 9th Division's two brigade commanders, Akiyama Yoshiyuki and Iisukuse Noritoki, having also heard about the situation, emerged from the command post to observe this anomalous spectacle.

Hearing Kiji Ryosuke's remarks, Nakagawa Hiroshi took a deep breath, furrowed his brow, and shook his head. "I don't understand either! I cannot fathom their intentions. Their actions simply defy all conventional military logic!"

One had to bear in mind that although the 9th Division had suffered significant losses, it was still a premier Class-A division with a troop strength exceeding twenty thousand men, and numerous reinforcements were still gathering. Yet these Chinese troops had dared to counter-charge three miles and dig in on the spot. Did they seriously believe that a single regiment could halt a full-scale offensive by the 9th Division?

If that was truly what they thought, they were either madmen or fools!

Kiji Ryosuke frowned deeply and said, "If they aren't insane, then this must be a trap!"

He paused, deep in thought, and muttered, "Only, I still cannot figure out what kind of trap it could possibly be."

Lowering his binoculars, Kiji Ryosuke let out an amused chuckle and said, "Their behavior has suddenly piqued my interest. I suppose I shall wait and see what they are really up to! Pass down the order: the troops are to suspend their attack for now. As long as this enemy force does not initiate an offensive, we will hold our ground and see what cards they intend to play!"

"Hai!" Akiyama Yoshiyuki and the others acknowledged in unison.

Nakagawa Hiroshi, however, felt that this course of action was somewhat inappropriate.

In his heart, he still leaned toward wiping out this detachment of Chinese troops as quickly as possible. For some inexplicable reason, the moment he laid eyes on them, his heart had skipped a beat, filling him with an intense and inexplicable sense of foreboding!

Yet, try as he might, he could not figure out where the problem lay.

In the end, Nakagawa Hiroshi could only attribute the feeling to exhaustion from the recent strenuous days, concluding that it must have been a mere illusion.